


Seeing is Believing

by mooosicaldreamz



Series: Seeing is Believing [1]
Category: Glee
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-03-23
Updated: 2014-02-20
Packaged: 2018-01-13 03:53:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 29,246
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1211584
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mooosicaldreamz/pseuds/mooosicaldreamz
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>I have had many adventures as an invisible man - H.G. Wells</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Another Day

**Author's Note:**

> SO, I've loved this book named _Things Not Seen_ for a very long time.  A very, very long time, and it's technically for teens, but it really is awesome.  I'm serious.  And so, I've decided to jump into the world of AU with a plot based pretty loosely on that.  WITH AN EPIC, TEN PART MONSTER.  I hope you like it.  This first part's sort of short.

Quinn Fabray wakes up when her parents leave for church.

 

She's not exactly welcome there anymore - having a baby out of wedlock kind of ruins your reputation with somewhat insanely evangelistic Christians, and putting it up for adoption is somehow not a tally mark under the good column.  It probably doesn't help that _at least_ three of her closest friends were gay, if  there weren't more gays just lurking in the mist in glee these days.  And another strike probably occurs with the realization that her closest friend had two gay dads.  

 

But it's all pretty much a moot point, because it's not like Quinn wants to be where she's not accepted.  Which, okay, mildly hypocritical because her parents barely speak to her, but they didn't before anyway. 

 

On days like this, she'd maybe go over to Santana's and work on the choreography of a Cheerios routine - she had rejoined the minute she had a chance, because it would look good on her college applications and she was actually good at it, or maybe go over to Rachel's and work on glee stuff - she'd been named co-captain when Finn had proven to be an ineffective leader (Rachel's words).  

 

She finally decides on going to Rachel's because the girl had said something about a new movie she had gotten that she insisted Quinn needed to see - something called _The Bermudez Triangle,_ or something like that.  A year ago, she would laugh if someone had said she'd be going over to Rachel Berry's to hang out and watch a movie and probably eat an excessive amount of cookies (Quinn didn't care too much about Coach's eating guide), but Rachel had somehow moved into a prominent place in Quinn's life swiftly and with surprising ease, and cemented herself as Quinn's best friend when she handed Quinn a large bag of Jolly Ranchers a few days after Caroline's (that's what Jack and Sierra, the adoptive couple, had named her) birth and told her to, _"get out of the bed and learn the dance routine to_ Thriller _with me."_

 

Admittedly, not the best way to handle someone reeling from having just given birth to a human being and seriously considering whether they had done the right thing, but it had worked, and now Quinn knew the _Thriller_ dance routine as well as anyone ever could.  

 

She just goes in the clothes she had slept in, a pair of jeans and a t-shirt, throws her hair up in a bun and walks out the door, not especially caring that she leaves it unlocked.  

 

Making the familiar drive over to the Berrys is sort of an unconscious thing.  She doesn't need to think about it anymore, since she's gone there so often - she had actually lived there for a good month or two after Caroline (she referenced time in her head like that, before Caroline and after Caroline), in between moving out of Puck's and moving into her parents'.  

 

It was strange to think that her life had worked out so well AC (after Caroline, catch up).  She and Puck had never really tried a relationship, not for lack of want on Puck's part, and that was okay.  They were still good friends, but Quinn had never loved him.  Maybe had a crush on him that fluctuated in size constantly, but it had never been quite enough for her to really want to be with him the way he did her.  

 

She and Finn had made up maybe two months after he had found out that Puck was the father, probably because of Rachel endlessly bothering him about it.  It was nice, having two guys who weren't after her constantly on her side, completely willing to drive her home if she got a little tipsy at a party (which had been only three times, and somehow Puck hadn't even tried to kiss her on the cheek, so _score)._

 

But the biggest addition to her life was somehow Rachel, still.  Her life may as well have revolved around the girl, in a scary, exciting way.  Her life probably wouldn't even be a life without Rachel, the way she just lights up Quinn's life and rooms like she's a really bright lamp or something.  

 

And Quinn was in love with her.

 

It was an almost anti-climatic realization, figuring out her feelings for Rachel Berry.  She had just woken up one day and all those weird feelings she had whenever Rachel was dancing around and her skirt (thankfully not argyle; Quinn had made it an initiative to at least make some headway in Rachel's clothing choices, aided by Kurt) would flip up, or when Rachel would take her hand to lead her somewhere (she was always dragging people around like that) had just coalesced into love.  It was strange, sure, to think that she was somehow gay for Rachel Berry, but she had gotten used to the idea quickly enough.  She didn't tell anyone, really, except for Brittany in an accidental confession (it had been one of those times she had gotten tipsy and Finn had driven her home), but it wasn't because she wasn't comfortable with it, just that it was something she didn't feel like just _announcing_ to the world.

 

It hurt like hell, sometimes, watching Rachel with Finn or whoever (for a girl who was supposed to be the bottom of the totem pole, she sure did get a lot of guys), but it was okay most of the time, just kind of there, hovering in the back of her mind as Rachel set her head on her shoulder or something.

 

Her being in love with a girl could also probably not go well with her old friends at Lima Christian Friends Church.  

 

She's distracted when a squirrel runs out in front of her car, and stops right in the middle of the road, nibbling on an acorn.  It occurs to her how sad it is that even the _squirrels_ in this town were dumb, but she doesn't do anything but patiently waits until the squirrel gets over its bad self and finally crosses the damn road.  She starts going again, before her phone trills from her pocket.

 

She pulls it out, eagerly flipping it open before holding it in front of her, half paying attention to the road.  It's Rachel, already talking away even though Quinn doesn't have it against her ear.

 

"-it is perfectly acceptable for you to come over today, Quinn," Rachel says breathlessly, and Quinn momentarily wonders if she should ask what the first, obviously long-winded part of the sentence was, but doesn't because it's probably long and unnecessary.  

 

"Well, good, because I'm already on my way over," Quinn says, giggling a little when Rachel sighs.

 

"Quinn, you need to stop _assuming_ things.  You know what they say about..."

 

Quinn decides to just let Rachel talk, zoning out and just listening to the girl talking.

 

Until she literally screams and drops the phone and in her panic drives herself straight into a telephone pole.  The airbag is in her face immediately, knocking her head back against the headrest and igniting an immediate ache behind her eyes before she pushes her door open and unbuckles, falling out onto the sidewalk and hitting her knees hard, almost crawling away from her car, her hands shaking.

 

She feels a warm rush on her head and reaches up to feel blood.  She pulls her hand away and looks at it, only to see blood floating in midair, rolling down an invisible surface, her mind flashing back to watching the wheel turn and no hands on it to do so.

 

Quinn Fabray is _invisible._

 


	2. The Search

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _I have had many adventures as an invisible man -_ H.G. Wells

She leaves as quickly as possible, her car smoking a little and specks of blood on the pavement.  She doesn't exactly consider what kind of scene people will see from their eyes when they see a teenage girl's car almost wrapped around a telephone pole and no teenage girl, just her blood and her shoes (Quinn takes those off when she realizes they're visible).  She just leaves it behind and hides.

 

She goes back home, bypasses the house entirely and goes into the woods behind it, wandering around with a vague purpose before she stops at the large oak tree she and Santana and Puck had been so enamored with one summer that her father had built a treehouse so they wouldn't fall out and break anything.  The man had a gift for sweetness when he wasn't drowning in disappointment.  

 

Climbing up the fraying ladder, she pulls herself into the heavily supported tiny house situated a good fifteen feet off the ground, and drags herself into the corner where a small cabinet sits, and pulls out blankets covered in Strawberry Shortcake.  Quinn came here first the day she found out she was pregnant, just sat in this corner and cried to herself while wrapped up in what she once was - a small little girl who her daddy called his little angel.  She had been in sixteen and pregnant by her boyfriend's best friend and it hurt so much to see what had happened to her life between those years.

 

And now?  Now she was seventeen and _invisible_ and in love with her best friend who was a girl.

 

Quinn vaguely considers whether she has done something inherently wrong that has caused the universe to pick on her so much.

 

Instead, she focuses on trying to think over something that could've caused this.  She feels herself move occasionally and sees nothing, and it's kind of terrifying.  After shifting in the blanket for a good five minutes with a sick fascination she makes a dive for the front entrance and throws up, before she can't even see straight her head hurts so much.

 

She somewhat remembers that she was just in a car accident and should probably be seeking help for her injuries - but it's not as though anything is broken, and it's not like a doctor could even see anything on her.  Because, _invisibility._

 

Finally though, she realizes she's _exhausted,_ through some combination of being invisible and staying up until seven the night before and running as fast as possible from the car wreck, and she drifts off to sleep imagining Rachel's singing to her, because that always calms Quinn down.

 

//

 

On the other side of town, Rachel bursts out her front door in her midday clothing, practically hyperventilating.  She had tried calling Quinn back about twenty times and had yelled at her dads for a good five minutes more about not allowing her to leave the house to barge onto the scene of a possible accident.  Eventually she had just ignored their warnings and thrown on her workout shoes, temporarily forgiving herself for using her _inside_ workout shoes _outside,_ and now she was sprinting down her street, following the route she would normally take over to Quinn's house.

 

It's on the corner of Johnson and Goodman that she finds Quinn's bright red car, smoking heavily in the evening sun, it's front end crunched to a size too small to comfortably hold an engine, pressed tightly into a telephone pole which seems no worse for wear.  The driver's side door is flung open as wide as it can go, the window smashed, and as she moves closer Rachel can see Quinn's phone on the floor, almost under the seat.

 

She pulls it out and sees that it's still technically on the line with her, still flipped open.  She closes it only because the silence she hears from it is unnerving and tucks it into her skirt's inside pocket, carefully stepping over glass scattered on the pavement and looking for any sign of Quinn.

 

She finally finds two things, neither of them comforting.  Quinn's shoes are flung further down the street, somehow, and there's blood _everywhere._

 

Well, that isn't especially true, but there's enough for Rachel to be concerned for Quinn's safety and current blood levels.  There's nothing anywhere to indicate that Quinn is around, because there's a few specks of blood down the street in the opposite direction of her shoes, towards Quinn's house, but Rachel doesn't know what to make of any of this.  

 

She replays it over in her head: she was about to explain to Quinn her feelings on the statement 'assuming makes an ass out of you and me' despite the fact that she knew Quinn was simply listening to her, probably smiling widely.  These days, Rachel doesn't say things just to hear herself talk, not like she used to, she says things that make Quinn smile.  It isn't a hard thing to do, because more and more Quinn seems to smile at everything Rachel does or says.  

 

But now Quinn is gone, somehow, and Rachel isn't sure if she's ever going to see her smile again.

 

Eventually, her dads catch up to her, only to find Rachel sitting on the pavement facing Quinn's car, rocking back and forth with silent tears running down her face.  She's given up on slowing her immediate reaction to go into full-on panic mode, and now she's just hoping that Quinn will jump out of the trees and scream 'April Fool's' so Rachel can finally tell her, finally say it.

 

Her brain almost doesn't register when her daddy pulls her up off the ground, pulling her into him while her dad calls the police.  An ambulance and cop car arrive quickly, and they pile out ready to get an injured high schooler to the nearest hospital, and Rachel can't even bring herself to explain that Quinn isn't here.

 

When her dads finally get her home, they wrap her in a blanket and put her in bed, turning on her _Wicked_ soundtrack in an attempt to draw a smile out of her, but she doesn't feel like smiling so much as curling up into a little ball and shaking.  They leave her alone when she closes her eyes and draws deep breaths and she finally falls asleep.

 

//

 

Her dream is strange, stranger than normal.

 

She finds herself in the middle of the music room at school, alone.  She can hear Quinn singing, quietly, somewhere in the room, singing Rachel's favorite song.  It was strange because Quinn wasn't anywhere, wasn't visible.

 

But Rachel could still feel her there, could still hear her.

 

Eventually she just sat down on the floor and closed her eyes and listened, wondering if this was all she'd ever get of Quinn, if she was gone forever.  A car wreck and blood and shoes and memories of her voice wrapping around her.  She can see the entire scene laid out in front of her, the car and no Quinn, no nothing to prove that she was alive or kidnapped or anything.  It was almost like she didn't exist.

 

When the song stops, Rachel raises her head and knows she's crying, knows she's desperate, but she does it anyway.

 

"Where are you?" she asks the empty room, and she gasps when she feels a hand land on her shoulder, pulling Rachel around to meet Quinn's hazel eyes, a lazy smile flickering across her face.  

 

"I'll find my way home.  Promise me you'll wait," Quinn whispers, and Rachel knows now that this is a dream, because Quinn is pressing closer, pressing her lips onto Rachel's with sweetness and want behind the simple touch.  

 

"I'll wait," Rachel answers, knowing that Quinn is about to slip away.  "I love you," she says, and Quinn only nods, smiling.  

 

It's the first time she's ever said it to Quinn, in a dream or in life, and it kills her to know that it could be the last.

 

"Wait for me."

 

Quinn kisses her one more time before she's gone, and Rachel wakes up.

 

//

 

She sits up slowly, feeling the tears run down her face and pulls herself out of the bed.

 

Rachel Berry knows that she shouldn't love Quinn Fabray.  She should probably hate her, really.  The girl threw slushies in her face until her own social respectability dropped beneath Rachel's, and even then, she was vindictive and cruel.  But Rachel was forgiving to a fault, and Quinn Fabray needed forgiveness.

 

It wasn't until she was practically carrying Quinn home after a marathon session at Rachel's dance studio, after having learned _Thriller_ to a level of perfection that Gene Kelly would undoubtedly be proud of that she realized she was Quinn's friend, and that Quinn was hers.  It was strange - she had always assumed that eventually Quinn would realize that she had the possibility of power back in her grasp and would take it without hesitation and leave Rachel at the bottom of the heap, despite the help Rachel had given her.  It was pessimistic and bitter, and it hurt Rachel to think of the day Quinn would order another slushy in her face - but it never happened.  Quinn trusted her, as evidenced by her willingness to cling to Rachel as she pulled them along to Rachel's car, muttering things about Caroline and sniffling occasionally.  Even if she was exhausted to the point that inane things excited her (Rachel remembers looking over at Quinn in suspicion of her sobriety when she clapped happily at a few ducks in a pond), she had talked about all sorts of things that Rachel was sure Quinn would never say to anyone.

 

But it didn't stop.  Quinn stayed with Rachel and her dads for a week or two after Caroline's birth, and she had opened up completely to Rachel, to the point that she became a new person to Rachel.  And when she moved back to her parents and rejoined the Cheerios, she regained some of that old Quinn Fabray air of excessive anger repressed by the bright red armor of her cheerleading uniform, but she smiled at Rachel in the hallways and called her every Thursday.

 

And Rachel fell in love.

 

It was unexpected.  She had never felt anything much for a girl up to that point, nothing beyond a vague appreciation for shape and an unhelpful spark of attraction that arose whenever Brittany would dance around and her skirt would flip up.  She didn't dwell on those things, but when Quinn Fabray became her best friend and Rachel fell in love with the person underneath the girl surface it was almost impossible to ignore her love for the body that encased her soul.  Quinn was sweet, and protective, and flippant, and assertive, unafraid to say no to Rachel.  And she was a beautiful girl, beautiful for all those traits and her seemingly flawless bone structure and the way her hair fell in waves around her face.  

 

Rachel spent a lot of time contemplating Quinn Fabray, obviously.

 

She loved Quinn Fabray, and Quinn Fabray was, at the very least, missing.  Remembering her dream in the midst of her musings, Rachel can almost feel Quinn whispering into her ear, "Wait for me."

 

So, Rachel pulls herself out onto the section of roof underneath her window, the overhang of their porch and sits there quietly until the sun rises and her alarm goes off, announcing school begins in two hours and her morning workout begins now.

 

On the news, Quinn is declared as a missing person due to no body being found after a car wreck on the corner of Johnson and Goodman streets, and Rachel goes to school, still waiting.

 

 


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _I have had many adventures as an invisible man -_ H.G. Wells

Rachel's day begins, unfortunately, with Santana (and Brittany, by default) at her locker when she arrives.  Normally, this occurrence wouldn't be so bad, because she and the other Cheerios had gotten much closer due to her closeness with Quinn.  She rather admired the two girls, for a number of reasons, but Santana's propensity towards hotheadedness was not exactly one of them.  Santana's face was a mask of calmness, but the look was almost identical to the look Quinn got when she talked about her parents - Rachel could tell she was about to burst with anger.  Brittany just looked sad, her eyes red-rimmed and she had a tight grip on Santana's hand.  

 

"Did you see?" Santana asks when Rachel gets in hearing distance, stepping back a little to let her open her locker.  Rachel just nods, unsure of what to say or really what Santana was even talking about.  She could hear Brittany sniffle.

 

"Do you have any idea where she could've gone?  Or if she's..." Santana starts, and at the mere notion of Quinn being dead, Brittany bursts into tears, and Rachel feels a pang of sympathy and a strong urge to cry herself.  Kurt somehow materializes and grabs ahold of her, dragging her down the hallway into the girl's bathroom, patting her sympathetically as she cries into his presumably designer jacket.  Rachel and Santana both watch this moment quietly, before Santana turns back to look at Rachel evenly.

 

"Seriously, Rach," she starts, and Rachel vaguely questions when she became such close friends with Santana Lopez that she was being called 'Rach.'

 

"She isn't...she isn't.  She was on the phone with me when she crashed, Santana, and I tried to get there fast...but she wasn't there.  She wasn't there," she whispers, and Santana has a momentary pained look on her face at the sight of Rachel with gathering tears in her eyes before she grabs hold of her shoulder and pulls the shorter girl to her in a hug.

 

"You couldn't have done anything," Santana whispers into Rachel's ear.  "Don't you dare cry on my uniform, Coach will skin me alive, and then I will skin _you_ alive, Berry."  

 

Rachel gives a weak laugh into Santana's neck, knowing that the threat holds little to no weight, because if Santana even attempted to touch Rachel in any way, Quinn would kick her ass, even if she was missing or dead or whatever.

 

//

 

The rest of the day moves at a snail's pace, with random people staring at her intently.  It appears the entire school has learned of Quinn's disappearance, and everyone knows that Rachel is her closest friend, due to multiple threats being issued, most of them beginning with the phrase, "If you even _touch_ Rachel..."

 

Everything she sees reminds her of Quinn, of all the times they've had here, good and bad.  It's ridiculously depressing to consider that she might never get a small smile as she walks towards trig and Quinn goes the opposite direction towards U.S. history, that she might never get driven home by the girl, singing along to whatever CD Quinn has in her car that day at the tops of their lungs.  She almost bursts into tears when no one walks up to her after lunch, brandishing a cookie and a devilish grin, but eventually school ends and all that remains is glee.

 

The entire club is quiet, even the freshmen have reigned themselves in and are tucked away in a corner.  Rachel sees them whisper to each other as she walks in, and the sophomores up along the back row all give tight nods, while the core glee club members gather around her quickly, all of them looking entirely too sober.  Even Puck looks like he's about to cry, which isn't really all that unexpected, because Rachel's been regaled with multiple stories of Santana, Puck, and Quinn's escapades leading up to middle school, and she knows that before anything ever happened between Quinn and Puck they were close friends.

 

Kurt looks at her contemplatively as she quickly explains that she had been on the phone with Quinn before she crashed and by the time Rachel had gotten to the wreck, Quinn was gone.  

 

It had taken a good amount of time for both Rachel and Kurt to come to the easy friendship they now shared.  In fact, the original twelve of the glee club had gelled to the point of almost familial levels of affection.  Of course, following that metaphor, incest was constantly occurring amongst the family, and they were even reproducing, or they were.  She and Quinn had commandeered some vodka on the night of Rachel's seventeenth birthday, and Rachel had explained this theory to the blond, who for her part was so tipsy that she merely smiled and didn't even make the face associated with her and Puck's one-time affair.  

 

Mr. Shue's arrival causes them to disperse, settling into a small semi-circle at the front of the room, and Kurt leans over to whisper into Rachel's ear quickly.

 

"You okay?" he asks, his high voice at a low volume.  She only nods, knowing exactly what he was asking.

 

It had been an accident - Kurt finding out how she felt about Quinn.  She hadn't ever really told him, he had just figured it out somehow.  It was probably around the time she had told Finn that she wasn't interested in him anymore - he had grabbed ahold of her arm while she was talking to Quinn, coincidentally enough, and pulled her off in the wrong direction, away from Quinn and her's shared physics class.  It had been the very beginning of this year, probably October, and he had pulled her as close as was appropriate and comfortable and told her he knew.  

 

She had actually fainted, and later on, waking up in the nurse's office, she had found Kurt hovering over her with a lazy smile and an ice pack placed on his head artfully, held up by a multicolored bandana, with Quinn on the end of her cot with an ice pack on her hand.  It had taken much brain power to figure out what had happened there, and eventually she came to trust Kurt despite his propensity to spread gossip.  He recognized how he had felt in Rachel, really, and knew that this was not something that the entire glee club needed to know.

 

Rachel knows that he doesn't believe her because he reaches over and grabs her hand just as Mike slides into the seat next to her, settling his arm around the back of her chair.  She knows exactly what everyone's doing, but she knows its not just for her benefit too - the entire group of them have settled close enough to each other for her to realize they're all feeling a little off.

 

Quinn was an integral member of the twelve and of the entire club, due to her co-captaincy and place as the level-headed, smart influence that no one else seemed to be able to fill besides her, and her voice was actually _necessary_ at the current moment, because she and Artie had been hard at work on the duet they had planned for states, which was in only a week.  Today was supposed to be their first run-through of the set list, and now they were down a member and their remaining co-captain looked as if she was on her last legs.

 

Eventually, they struggle through two of the five songs needed for states, one of them Mercedes' solo and the other a group routine, with Puck paired off to empty air.

 

Afterwards, they gather once more in a circle in the center of the choir room, and it's Brittany who suggests that they pray.  Rachel almost wants to point out that she really doesn't do that, and anyway, they don't need to pray, because Quinn's _fine,_ she's about to walk through the door and shrug her shoulders and say she was sorry, but Quinn doesn't, and so Rachel doesn't, she just nods along to the whispered words coming out of Brittany's mouth and says 'amen' when it's finished.

 

She walks home, glancing occasionally up at the clouds gathering in the sky and pulling her light jacket tighter around her.  It's spring now and normally Rachel would feel refreshed at the thought of the endless winter finally giving way to the blooming of flowers and greenness being restored to the earth, but mostly it makes her sad, because she should be with Quinn now, wherever she was.

 

It's this thought that makes her pause.

 

She starts to head back toward the scene of the accident, to examine the blood spots or something or _anything_ because there must be some clue to where Quinn has gone, because she can't be dead, she can't be kidnapped, she's safe and alive and somewhere tangible.

 

She feels the first raindrop hit her arm as she's walking down Berger Avenue, and she starts running, but it's too late by the time she gets there.  Neither the car or the shoes or the blood are there and if it weren't for the skid marks on the sidewalk, it would seem as if nothing ever happened.  So Rachel just sits there, on the ground in the pouring rain, because it feels heavy to be standing there while she has no idea where Quinn is, where the love of her life is.  

 

Rachel is pulled out of her staring intently at the pole that Quinn's car had been crashed into by the sound of a car pulling up, and being pulled up by Puck and being pulled into Santana, and crying as she feels Finn put his coat around her.  It's amazing, how much all these people have changed over the past year, and it only makes her cry harder.  These people are her friends, now, and they obviously care enough about her to help her, but they aren't who Rachel wants right now, really.  

 

The five of them sit around in Rachel's living room for the next few hours, and she realizes that these are the people who have been the closes to Quinn.  Brittany has been Quinn's self-proclaimed teddy bear since the age of ten (Rachel had laughed for five minutes as Quinn pouted at her after that revelation), Santana had been her protector, Puck had been her other protector and the person the most like her, and Finn had been her boyfriend for a good three years.  It was strange to consider how Rachel fit into that group now, when a year ago they had been throwing slushies in her face.

 

By the time they leave, it's nine and her fathers are going up to bed, claiming exhaustion, looking at her as if she's about to collapse.  And collapse she does, onto her bed, only to be woken by the sound of a phone ringing on her bedside table.  She grabs for the lit-up object blindly, halfway wondering when she had set her ringtone to _Sex on Fire._

 

"Rach?"  

 

She literally falls out of bed and thunks her knees on the floor, hard, but its Quinn on the line and she can't even begin to focus on the sting that accompanies her fall.

 

"Quinn?" she asks breathlessly, already feeling tears pricking at her eyes.  

 

"Rach, I need your help," she hears Quinn whisper back, and she knows just by the wavering quality to Quinn's voice that the girl is upset and on the verge of crying, knows because she's catalogued every noise and facial expression Quinn has ever made, and she's pulling on her shoes before she can even consider what she's doing, but by the time she even realizes she's pulled on her _inside_ workout shoes to be used _outside,_ again, she's racing down the streets to where Quinn has told her to go.

 


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _I have had many adventures as an invisible man -_ H.G. Wells

Rachel ran into Quinn's backyard after a few heroic-looking leaps over low fences that would've made Coach Sylvester drop her usual sneer in favor of a blank stare, and kept running on her way to the woods, but just as she was passing the lawn gnome collection Quinn's mother had been building since around her sister's birth, Quinn realized her trajectory was not a good one.

 

By the time Quinn figured out that she should probably move away, Rachel was running into her, sending both girls sprawling in opposite directions. Quinn landed on a huge pile of pine cones that she had seen her dad making while she was still up in the tree house, waiting for a time to get into her house without someone seeing her.  Or, whatever.  It was strange though, he only did things like that when he was worked up.  The last time she had seen him do the pine cone thing was when her sister had come home from college up at OSU crying about her boyfriend or some kind of drama that Quinn had pretty much ignored.  

 

But what mattered now was that Rachel was here.  More specifically, Rachel was sitting up slowly and surveying the domino effect she had just put into place on the meticulous lawn gnomes, obviously caught somewhere between confusion and amusement, probably at the fishing gnome with the long beard.  Quinn noticed immediately that Rachel looked utterly frantic, her hair wild and her eyes swollen like she's been crying incessantly (it reminds Quinn of the time Rachel had coerced her into going to see some heartbreaking Nicholas Sparks movie and Rachel had cried on her for a good two hours _after_ the movie), and it makes Quinn feel guilty that she hadn't gotten out of the treehouse and just went and found Rachel, but it had been raining and she wasn't sure what an invisible girl walking through the rain would look like.  It looks as though Rachel has on her inside workout shoes, which is like _whoa._

 

Quinn is about to speak when she realizes her head is pounding again and she lays back down on the ground with a groan.  Rachel immediately reacts, whipping her head around in a circle but not seeing anything.  

 

"Quinn?" she asks, and Quinn herself is so amused by the way Rachel's turning around in circles to actually bring herself to answer.  When she doesn't answer, Rachel's face falls, and keeps falling so it looks as if she's expecting the worse even though she's hit the lowest of the low.

 

"Quinn, are you..." she starts, pauses, then breathes.  Quinn knows she's gathering herself up to say something she doesn't really want to, and that fact is a little disconcerting because there aren't many things Rachel is afraid to say.  "Are you dead?"

 

At this, Quinn laughs, hard, and Rachel's eyes go comically wide in response to her best friend's laughter so close.  

 

"Where are you?" Rachel asks, her eyes landing in Quinn's general direction and moving closer quickly, and yet again Quinn can't warn her away quick enough before Rachel trips on Quinn's invisible leg, and she falls once more to the ground, thankfully avoiding crashing into the lonely alien lawn gnome that had somehow wandered away from the pack.  Immediately, Quinn crawled over to her (avoiding standing up and getting a head rush and then collapsing once more to the ground) and placed a hand on Rachel's arm, sliding downwards to grip her hand.

 

"Right here," Quinn whispers, trying to ignore the fear in Rachel's eyes.

 

"Is this a dream?  Because if this is a dream, I hate my subconscious.  It doesn't feel like a dream because I can...Quinn?" Rachel cuts off her presumably long-winded explanation as to how she knows she's not dreaming when Quinn interlaces their fingers and squeezes, drawing a shuddering breath in because Rachel's _here_ and she's going to be okay as long as Rachel's here.

 

"Right here," Quinn repeats, echoing her thoughts and pulling Rachel up so that they're facing each other, on their knees.  Rachel's eyes are flitting around, and she reaches out a little too fast, probably trying to see if Quinn's even there and ends up clocking Quinn right in the forehead, where her just recently sealed-up gash voices its displeasure with being touched.  This time its Quinn who sprawls backward, groaning as her head hits the ground.  She's pretty sure she has a concussion by this point, and she's also pretty sure that getting punched probably won't help the state of her brain.  Rachel, for her part, shrieks, loudly, causing Quinn to groan once again even as Rachel moves over her, slowly reaching down.

 

Quinn has to redirect her hand so she won't land it in a bad place (good place, really, but despite the fact that she has constant x-rated dreams about the girl hovering over her, she doesn't exactly feel in the mood to get felt up) and places it on her cheek, and the look on Rachel's face is completely dumbfounded.  

 

"Quinn, you're invisible," Rachel whispers, her other hand landing in Quinn's hair and running through it, probably proving to herself that Quinn is actually alive and not for anything else.  Quinn almost reaches up to grab ahold of Rachel, any part, really, just to confirm her existence, but she restrains herself because Rachel is crying now.  

 

"You're alive," she mumbles, and Quinn nods, sitting up slowly and grabbing ahold of Rachel's shoulders and pulling the girl into her.  For a few minutes, they just sit like that, Rachel with her head tucked into Quinn's invisible neck, trying not to cry all over her. 

 

"I can't believe you care more about me being alive than me being invisible," Quinn finally whispers, and Rachel leans back shoving at Quinn's shoulder without opening her eyes.  When she does open them however, she's met with empty air.  Quinn watches as Rachel searchingly looks through her, probably trying to meet her eyes before she eventually sighs and reaches forward again, slower, and Quinn's eyes slide shut as Rachel's fingers trace over Quinn's face.  

 

"How did this happen?" Rachel asks quietly, her fingers running along Quinn's eyebrows.  Quinn sighs a little, shifts so she's sitting down cross-legged, pulling Rachel into her side as she does so.

 

"Well, I crashed my car after I noticed I was...like this.  I got rid of my shoes because I could see them, and I ran here, to the treehouse, and I fell asleep.  When I woke up I waited around for a little bit before I got into the house and used the house phone to call your phone...which is ringing, by the way," Quinn says, poking at Rachel's pocket amusedly as it blares _Sex on Fire._

 

"I don't care.  I think Puck might have changed my ringtone while I was in the shower earlier, though," Rachel mutters, pressing ignore to the unknown number before Quinn can see it.

 

"It's a good song," Quinn whispers, before shrugging and getting up, walking towards the gnomes Rachel knocked over and setting them in the correct position one by one.  Rachel watches in silence, obviously enamored with the sight of inanimate objects moving without any visible interference.  

 

"This is impossible," Rachel finally says, and Quinn pauses in the middle of setting up the two kissing gnomes.  

 

"We're good at the impossible," she returns, carefully lining up their lips and turning to look at Rachel even though the girl can't see her.  "I mean, hello, the president of the chastity club who got knocked up, standing right here.  And you, unbelievably tiny person with unbelievably huge voice.  I mean, yeah, invisibility not previously in the line of possibilities for my life, but...I mean, we can fix this, right?  We have to fix this," Quinn says, watching as Rachel nods vigorously, getting up and moving over in the wrong direction towards where Quinn assumes the shorter girl thinks she is.  

 

"Wrong way," Quinn says, grabbing Rachel's arm and pulling her towards Quinn.  She tugs a little too hard, though, and she feels Rachel's body press completely up against hers and she vaguely considers how kissing a person while invisible works out before Rachel steps back a little and runs her hands down Quinn's arms.  

 

"We'll fix this, Q, I swear," Rachel whispers, putting emphasis on her belief by squeezing Quinn's cold hands.  "But first...can we go home and sleep?" she asks, beginning to swing their joined hands back and forth.

 

Quinn smiles before she realizes Rachel can't see it and just whispers 'yes,' letting the shorter girl lead her to her house, and she doesn't even realize she had no qualms with Rachel calling it _their_ home until Rachel curls up next to her in Rachel's bed.  

 

//

 

Rachel wakes with a heavy weight on her shoulder and an arm slung across her waist.  Or, she thought it was an arm, because she couldn't see it or anything, and the heavy weight must've been Quinn's head.

 

She would give almost anything for this moment to be _real -_ so that she could see Quinn's hopefully peaceful face and how relaxed she was sleeping next to Rachel, so that she wouldn't feel so disconnected from reality.  It's disconcerting, knowing that this moment might never happen if Quinn were visible, and that small, helpless thought reels her back to the current problem in her life.

 

Quinn was _invisible._

 

But Quinn was also moving, her head lifting up off of Rachel's shoulder and her arm moving to grasp at Rachel's hip before all the weight is moved entirely off of Rachel's body.  She hears the mumbled 'sorry,' and Rachel imagines the sweet, mussed look that Quinn always has when she's just woken up, like she's entirely content with the world around her.  It was one of the first things Rachel ever began to love about Quinn Fabray, how she started her days as a sweet, vulnerable girl and ran through them with the mask of calm strength that had softened over time, during her pregnancy and After Caroline (she capitalized it in her head).  But that mask had a way of disappearing with Rachel, even when they were at odds.  It had used to slip into pure anger, possibly unprovoked, but still seething, raging annoyance that effected everything in her persona when she was insulting Rachel in every way imaginable.  Eventually though, it had started to slip into the vulnerability that Rachel now expected from Quinn in her presence - Quinn Fabray was an entirely different person, at any age, with Rachel Berry than she was with anyone else.

 

God, she was so in love that it almost sickened her, and Rachel Berry sent out custom-made Christmas cards with maudlin stories and sentimental sayings.

 

Quinn somehow realizes that Rachel is drifting off and laughs, poking at Rachel's forehead.  It's strange, being poked by an invisible girl.  

 

Even in her head, that statement is inappropriate.

 

Rachel disregards the _bad thoughts_ going on in her brain and smiles wanly in what she assumes is Quinn's direction.  It's hard though - not knowing where to focus and _oh God_ she could be focussing on a bad place, or a good place, or whatever, so she just closes her eyes and reaches out again.  Quinn seems to know what Rachel's doing and lightly takes her hand and pulls it towards her face.

 

Quinn is smiling, judging by the curve of her lips, and she's probably a little amused by this, because her eyebrows are raised.  But Rachel ignores all that and moves her fingers up over Quinn's forehead and she gasps when she feels a long cut running along the girl's hairline.

 

"It's okay, Rach," Quinn says, and Rachel opens her eyes just in time to watch Quinn pull her hand away and place it between them, their hands cupping together.  Rachel can _feel_ the way their hands are placed but it's as if her hand is just floating in midair and it's entirely too strange to comprehend.  Quinn obviously recognizes something in Rachel's face because she pulls Rachel to her quickly, rubbing her back.

 

"Look, I know that this probably isn't the best situation I could've brought to you, me being...you know, invisible, but Rach, you're the only person I really trust and I didn't know where else to go.  You were like, my only hope," Quinn says, and Rachel giggles.

 

"You're a total dork," Rachel says, prodding at Quinn's shoulder, or somewhere close to her shoulder that is hopefully not a bad place.  "You _would_ make a _Star Wars_ reference in a serious moment."

 

"Oh yes, Ms. 'I have a Liza Minelli life-size stand up in the back of my closet', I am _totally_ the dork of this duo," Quinn says, returning the poke and laughing as Rachel looks both affronted and stunned.

 

"Liza Minelli is a treasure of America and should be treated as such, A.  B, when did you find that?" she asks, a little afraid at the number of embarrassing things Quinn could've found in the back of her closet.  

 

"I was looking for a tape your dad claimed existed of you doing an entire routine in a Tigger outfit that he wanted to show me," Quinn says breezily, pulling away from Rachel and crawling over the smaller girl and falling out of bed purposefully.  "And now I'm going to go find that, because I really want to see it and I never got to."

 

Rachel immediately rolls out of bed after the girl, unsure of how to catch her before she sees the doorknob of her closet turn.  She dives for Quinn, and grabs ahold of her hip, luckily enough, and pulls her backwards once she catches her other one, and Quinn is laughing happily.  

 

"That video was 'taken care of,' if I may borrow a common phrase from mafia movies.  Even though I believe in respecting your performing past and being proud of it, Daddy always promised to show it to whoever I would get married to, and that would've been too much," Rachel says, laughing as she feels Quinn turn around in her arms and shove at her, separating them so that Quinn can now move around the room without Rachel having any idea of where she was.

 

"You should get ready for school," she hears Quinn whisper, suddenly over by Rachel's desk.  Quinn's still giggling, but Rachel wants to put in her serious statement before she really _does_ have to get ready for school.

 

"Quinn, I wanted to say thank you for telling me where you were.  Obviously, it is...inconvenient that your invisible, but you're alive, and that's what matters to me.  As your friend.  I...when I thought you were missing, or...dead, I couldn't...well, I couldn't really deal.  You're my best friend, Quinn, and I haven't ever really had a best friend, and...losing you would...well, it would suck.  It would suck so bad that I have reverted to using such a horrible and crass word as 'suck' to describe it.  And I realize that you're probably rolling your eyes at me because I talk too much, but I really would like to clarify that you haven't brought any undue pressure on me by coming to me for help.  I'm honored to help you, Quinn, as ever," she finishes, trying to ignore the tears gathering in her eyes.  

 

She hears Quinn move closer to her and feels the girl wipe away a stray tear on her face.  

 

"Thanks, Rach," she whispers, and Rachel closes her eyes and immediately reaches out for Quinn's face, this time landing close enough that Quinn doesn't move her hands, and she smiles a little when she realizes Quinn's face has tears on it.  

 

"I really need to go to school now, I have a trigonometry test today," Rachel mutters, letting go of Quinn and moving over to her closet to pick out clothes.  Her hands drift over a few of them before settling on a blouse.

 

"No argyle!" Quinn yelps, her voice farther across the room.  "And no hush puppies.  Can't you just wear the jeans you bought with me a few weeks ago?  That was the whole point of buying them.  So that you could wear them.  And be at least somewhat normal."

 

Rachel turns to glare to where she assumes Quinn to be, before grabbing one of the outfits she had allowed Quinn to pick for her, a blue and green plaid shirt and a pair of dark jeans that had been a little too...revealing for her taste.  Quinn had only told her that Rachel was often lucky if her skirt covered her ass when she sat down, normally, when Rachel had voiced her fears about the skinny jeans.  Rachel had immediately bought the outfit to avoid thinking about Quinn noticing her ass, and _when on earth_ did she start using the word ass in her inner thoughts?

 

She gets dressed and says goodbye to Quinn, who appears to be lounging on Rachel's bed, if the imprint on the pillow is any indication, who voices her approval for Rachel's 'normal' outfit, and then she's out the door, walking to school, somehow ridiculously giddy despite the fact that she was practically going into shock maybe twelve hours ago.

 

//

 

Quinn waits five minutes after Rachel leaves to quietly tip-toe through the house and out the front door, an (obviously) invisible grin settling on her face.

 


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _I have had many adventures as an invisible man -_ H.G. Wells

Halfway through first period, Rachel is called down to Mrs. Pillsbury's office.  

 

Normally, she'd find this to be a dooming prospect, but she's already finished her trigonometry test and it's not as if Mrs. Pillsbury is _nearly_ as bad about counseling youths as she used to be, although she wasn't nearly as good as just about anyone could be.  Rachel wonders if her fathers know that the education she's being provided with is not exactly up to par - it seems as though the only worthwhile teacher the school could hire was Mr. Schuester, and even then, he was always out to delay her career in glee.  

 

She's distracted from these thoughts when she smells a whiff of something on the air.  Normally, she wouldn't care one bit whatever smell was assaulting her and she'd just leave it behind.  But it was accompanied by a tingling feeling in her fingers - and she only felt those around one person.  She had once explained to Quinn, in general terms, how she knew a person (it didn't really work with random people, just Quinn) was in the room, by this tingling feeling, and Quinn had taken on a completely serious face and said it was her spidey senses and that she'd soon be developing abilities to climb walls.  Rachel had _almost_ believed her until Quinn had just burst into laughter, claiming it was all a joke.

 

Rachel also loves that Quinn Fabray is very much a total geek - she has a brain that remembers something about everything, a facet of her personality not readily available at the surface.  Rachel had once watched Quinn take Santana, Puck, and Finn for all their clothes in a game of strip poker (although, Finn might've lost the minute he agreed to play _poker,_ which, as Rachel understood it to be, was a game of nuance and shrewdness that Finn admittedly did not have in abundance, and Puck might've lost at the point where Santana and Quinn had both lost their shirts, and Santana probably lost when Quinn lost her pants), and she had also witnessed Quinn absolutely _murder_ Tina in 80s trivia, both victories Quinn claimed had to do with her avid watching of _World Poker Tour_ and _I Love the 80s._ She also had a sweet spot for sci-fi movies, as evidenced by her _Spiderman_ reference and her inherited set of original _Star Wars_ action figures (they had been her father's, apparently).  

 

Rachel whips around and smiles, because she knows Quinn Fabray knows enough about rules of sci-fi invisibility that the obligatory, 'explore the world while invisible and cause general mayhem' period has commenced.  Rachel closes her eyes once more (it's somehow a natural movement now) and reaches forward, thankfully aiming at the correct height and feeling her hand land on Quinn's jaw.  

 

"I thought you were going to stay where I told you to," Rachel says, feeling Quinn's lips turn up into a smirk at her words and giving in to her supreme urge to return the smile.  

 

"You didn't tell me to stay anywhere," Quinn answers, grabbing Rachel's hall pass out of her hand, presumably to look at it.  Rachel doesn't see, obviously, due to her eyes being closed, but she feels Quinn's smile even out so that it's soft and less cocky before she pushes it into Rachel's open hand.  "Go on, I'll be around," Quinn says, nudging at Rachel a little.  

 

"She's going to ask me about you," Rachel says, opening her eyes and watching her hand trace along Quinn's jaw, which is now working beneath her fingers, probably clenching.  

 

"Well, it's not like you can tell her that I'm invisible.  Because, hello, mental institution coming right at you.  Maybe this is an alternate universe or something?  Maybe you _are_ in a mental institution, and this is all a hallucination," Quinn says, becoming sidetracked quickly.  "Just go ahead, Man Hands, and...I don't know, be your dramatic, tiny little self.  Sing your feelings.  All that jazz."

 

"I can't believe you referenced both _Buffy the Vampire Slayer_ and _Chicago_ in the same paragraph," Rachel mutters, dropping her hands from Quinn's face.  "First of all, they are not even on the same wavelength of entertainment sensibilities, as _Chicago_ favors a sexually-charged atmosphere that, admittedly, is very appealing, but _Buffy_ uses violence as a metaphor - "

 

"Right, metaphors are important, you're a star.  And stop talking about _Buffy_ like you know it.  Now go before she comes and finds you talking to empty air!" Quinn says, turning Rachel around and pushing at her shoulders towards Mrs. Pillsbury's office.

 

"You're the one who made me watch the entire series," Rachel whines, resisting just for the fun of it, and Quinn just giggles, continuing to shove the shorter girl down the hallway.

 

"Seriously, Rach, you're detracting from the amount of time I have left to destroy Coach's office by not going," Quinn says, and Rachel immediately stops leaning backwards and starts moving determinedly towards the counselor's office.  Just before she reaches the door though, she turns back.  

 

"Please make an effort to draw mustaches on all her trophies, if possible.  And, please dump slushies on all the uniforms."

 

"God, _Revenge of the Nerds_ much?" Rachel hears Quinn say, but she knows Quinn will get those requests done for her as she listens to the girl walk away at a pattern reminiscent of the classic Broadway song _Hair._

 

_//_

 

Forty minutes later, Rachel is staring determinedly down at the meticulously groomed carpet in Mrs. Pillsbury's office, alone.  Namely because a soaking wet Sue Sylvester had gone roaring past the windows of the counselor's office with a _huge_ trophy hoisted above her head.  Literally, roaring.  Like a dinosaur.  She had stopped in Mrs. Pillsbury's door and pointed the trophy straight at the woman, narrowly missing Rachel's head with it, and had promised a slow, painful, and traumatic death for a Mr. Will Schuester and promptly continued _roaring_ down the hallway.  Rachel did not miss the line of green paint running down the back of her tracksuit.  

 

Mrs. Pillsbury and Rachel had only stared at each other for a few seconds, both absolutely dumbfounded at the usually...insane but well-organized coach in such disarray before the counselor had rocketed out of her seat and followed after the other woman, leaving Rachel in the uncomfortable chair, staring at the uncomfortable pamphlets.  

 

Eventually, though, she gets up, only to be shoved back into her seat by an invisible force.  A wet one, apparently, because Rachel can feel dampness on her shoulder when Quinn drops her hand.  

 

Quinn must've noticed Rachel's look of displeasure and explained, "I had to wash my hands.  I had paint all over them."

 

"You're going to try to bring down the entire town in one day, aren't you?" Rachel asks, hovering between an urge to maintain order and the urge to let Quinn have her fun.  

 

"Oh yeah, I'm a regular Ferris Bueller.  Also, _totally_ drew mustaches on all the trophies, and put my knowledge of the staining power of purple slushies to good use, finally.  The Death Star has been dealt a fatal blow," Quinn says triumphantly, her voice growing quieter as she apparently moves toward the pamphlets and picks up one entitled, 'So You're Gay! HOORAY!'

 

"You know, when this friendship first started, I assumed that you were an alien inhabiting the body of the Quinn Fabray who wore sunglasses to school to be more popular," Rachel sighs, watching as Mrs. Pillsbury's chair creaks and spins around and the pamphlet flaps in the wind created from the movement.  Quinn giggles, stopping the chair mid-spin and setting down the pamphlet, open to a page filled with famous gay celebrities.

 

"It worked for Neo, is all I'm saying.  It should work for me," Quinn says, and Rachel can tell just by the playful way Quinn is speaking that she's smiling.

 

"And then I realized you really were just a complete nerd," Rachel mutters, laughing when Quinn crumples up the pamphlet and tosses it at her, missing by a wide margin.  

 

"I don't know how many times we're going to have this discussion, Rach, but you're _still_ a bigger dork than me.  At least my dorkiness is mainstreamed dorkiness," Quinn says, and this time her voice is much closer, probably right behind Rachel.

 

"Untrue.  You dragged me to a comic book store in _Cleveland_ to get a quarter-monthly issue of a series at which the seller expressed his disbelief that it was even in existence.  It was about _ducks_ and _rabbits,_ " Rachel says, laughing when Quinn lands her hands on Rachel's shoulders and squeezes, probably trying to get her to be quiet.

 

"Whatever.  So, Quinn Fabray is a nerd, fine.  But you love me anyways," Quinn says, rubbing Rachel's shoulders and working at a knot she finds in twin spots on either side.  Rachel tries not to groan in thanks.

 

"I do love you, Quinn," Rachel almost whispers, leaning her head back to land on Quinn's soft but firm stomach (which, if Rachel may say so herself, housed a set of absolutely _killer_ abs that Rachel had obscene dreams about for weeks after an afternoon spent in Quinn's hot tub) as Quinn giggled and pressed her thumbs deep into Rachel's shoulders.

 

"Love you too, Rach.  I think I'm going to go destroy that creeper Jacob Ben Israel's shrine to you now, so, have to go," Quinn says, her hands dropping from Rachel's shoulders just as the bell for fourth period rings out.  

 

//

 

So, Quinn lied, maybe a little.  She _did_ break into Jacob's shrine and take a few key items, but she had already done it when she had told Rachel she would.  She had really, _really_ wanted to get out of the room, because Rachel was making little noises and Quinn couldn't trust her hands to stay in the correct places and Rachel's head on her had felt good, and Rachel _loved_ her, and really, she just needed to get out before she suffocated.

 

There were so many things about her that Rachel now knew - and apparently held a great deal of affection for.  It was strange to think that the girl had started out thinking she was some sort of empty, soul-less girl who liked to throw slushies in people's faces and call them names.  Which, okay, she did enjoy thinking of the names, because it was good intellectual exercise, but she had grown up snuggled up with her dad on the sofa, watching old Japanese _Godzilla_ movies and laughing at the horrible audio dubs.  She hadn't come out of the womb just days before Rachel became her target, she had grown up and gone through phases just like everyone else.

 

For instance, she had shared with Santana and Puck a _Gilligan's Island_ phase for a good six months when they were about eight after a sleepover where they all watched a huge marathon.  They had spent most of that time calling each other names of characters on the show, until Puck entered into a _Pokemon_ phase and Santana had picked up a love for softball (which, in hindsight, was obvious), and Quinn herself had embarked onto a very serious _Harry Potter_ obsession.

 

And that comic book Rachel had just mocked, she read with Brittany, _so whatever._

 

Quinn had never had anyone know her as well as Rachel Berry did, and as terrifying a prospect as that was, it helped to know that she knew an extensive amount about Rachel, too.

 

Admittedly, a lot of it revolved around her obsessive love of musical theater, but Rachel also had four shelves in her room dedicated to other sorts of music, a lot of it Quinn hadn't even heard of.  Rachel also had had a number of obsessions while growing up, including a phase where she wanted to be an killer whale trainer at Sea World (Rachel had defended her younger self by saying that it was another form of performance), and as a result, swam ridiculously fast.

 

Which was exactly what Quinn was watching now.

 

She had lied, and now she was watching Rachel in her gym class, except, of course, her gym class wasn't her playing tennis or something so Quinn could happily distract her, but she was swimming and now _Quinn_ was distracted.  The school had, of course, demanded that the girls put on full bathing suits or shirts to go over bikinis, and Rachel had opted for the second option.

 

Quinn had already seen Rachel's bikini, okay, and Rachel was totally hiding the body of a Playboy model under the hideous amounts of argyle and skirts (which, admittedly, were...fine, now that Quinn had a deeper appreciation for them), and Quinn had spent most of the next few nights after that private hot tub party having dreams where she traced the shorter girl's abs with her tongue, and -

 

 _Focus,_ Quinn thinks to herself, looking to the exits and trying to figure out how to get out without going into some weird sort of arousal-induced seizure.

 

Then she realizes she's kind of invisible and can do whatever the hell she wants.  

 

//

 

Quinn ends up setting up an elaborate domino effect of sorts with the books in her math teacher's classroom, and the look on Rachel's face when she enters the room and runs into Mrs. Adams is nothing short of awe, because all the desks have been shoved to the sides of the room and the books spell out, 'you suck,' and Quinn really hopes Mrs. Adams learns her lesson about leaving her door unlocked during her prep period.

 

//

 

Quinn realizes that she needs a shower when she's following Finn down the hallway during a passing period (he created such a wide berth because of his size) and he turns around abruptly and sniffs under his armpit confusedly.  

 

Upon her entry into the girls locker room showers, she immediately recognizes her error, because there are just some things you can't unsee, and that _definitely_ includes Santana and Brittany...and the shower.  

 

She then decides that maybe she should wait until she regains proper vision and the chance of finding two lesbian Cheerios is zero.  She decides to disregard herself in the equation.

 

//

 

Rachel finds a stack of cookies waiting for her in her locker before lunch, with a note telling her where to go.  

 

The small area between the tennis courts and the main building is uninhabited during lunch time, mainly because it was so far away from the cafeteria.  Today was no exception, of course, and upon walking out Rachel was greeted with nothingness.  Until, of course, Quinn jumped out from wherever and grabbed her by her waist, eliciting a loud squeak that seemed to further increase Quinn's jubilation.  

 

"I see you're enjoying your day," Rachel mutters, letting herself be pulled towards a shaded picnic table she hadn't seen when she walked out.  It had a few sandwiches sitting on it, and Rachel wondered how Quinn had gotten ahold of them but decided not to dwell on it.  

 

"Well, yeah," Quinn says, sliding into the seat next to Rachel and leaning into the shorter girl's side, "I put some shaving cream in Puck and Finn's baseball cleats and stole...some stuff from Santana's locker and hid it in her home ec class oven.  I mean...why, what's up with your day?" Quinn asks, reaching out to grab Rachel's left hand with her right, and turning the girl to face her with an insistent tug.

 

Rachel sighs a little because she feels like this conversation should be held face-to-face, and technically it is, but it's so hard having an invisible person as your best friend.  It was only the _first day_ and Rachel was exhausted.  

 

"People keep asking me if I'm alright," she mutters, closing her eyes and sliding her hand up Quinn's arm to get to her face.  It's calm, but she can feel the edges of Quinn's mouth quirk up when Rachel bites her lip.  "And I'm supposed to be completely catatonic, and everyone's freaked out that I'm not, and I feel sort of like I'm betraying you because I would be if I didn't know you were okay.  Or, relatively okay, I guess, in that you're alive, not that you're the Invisible Woman."

 

Rachel feels Quinn cock her head to the side and frown. 

 

"You were catatonic?" Quinn asks quietly, and Rachel can feel her frown deepen when Rachel takes a breath and lets it out slowly.

 

"I suppose I was probably close to it.  Santana, Brittany, Noah and Finn came and picked me up yesterday on the side of the road while it was raining," she remarks, feeling Quinn frown even further before her lips turn up a little at one side.  

 

"It's nice to know I picked a good group of childhood friends," Quinn says, grasping at one of Rachel's hands and squeezing.  "I'm sorry I freaked you out."

 

"It's nice to have people willing to injure others if they hurt you, yes.  I wish I had had friends like that when I was in the developmental age of my growth," Rachel whispers, her eyes still closed.  "And it's okay, Quinn."

 

Her hands feel along Quinn's furrowed brow and frown for a few silent seconds before Quinn's frown drops a little more.

 

"Why do you keep feeling my face?" she asks quietly, and Rachel immediately drops her hands but keeps her eyes closed.

 

"I guess...it helps me see you.  Sorry," she whispers, turning away from Quinn and to her provided sandwich quickly, opening her eyes to find its her favorite from the school cafeteria.

 

It's silent for a few more seconds, before Rachel feels Quinn drop her head to Rachel's shoulder and whisper, "It feels nice."

 

//

 

When Quinn follows Rachel into glee silently, she expects the room to be alive with boisterous conversation, but it's instead buzzing with slight whispers on the periphery, but for the most part, it's uncomfortably quiet.  Her original teammates are all clumped together at the forefront of the room, and Santana immediately stands up to grab Rachel and pull her into the empty chair in the middle of the group, with a softly-smiling Kurt on the other side of her.  

 

Quinn was often uncomfortable with the strange camaraderie that had sprung up between Kurt and Rachel - because whenever they seemed to have lengthy conversations, Rachel would always be uncomfortable with _her._ She had tried to talk to both of them about it, but Kurt had literally just raised his eyebrows at every excessive insult until he had asked her when she had realized she was in love with Rachel, and she had barely restrained from slapping him (she had punched him the one time Rachel had fainted while talking to him), and had promptly avoided all conversation with him.  Rachel had merely shrugged and said she didn't know what Quinn was talking about, but as she watched Kurt whisper something in Rachel's ear, she smiles back softly and nods before she seems to realize something and looks searchingly around the room and sighing when she doesn't find what she's looking for.

 

Quinn realizes that Rachel might be looking for _her._

 

To the left of Santana, Brittany looks red-eyed, like when she did when she and Quinn had watched _Planet Earth_ and the elephants wandered off into the wrong direction and had cried for three days afterward.  Santana herself looks a little out of sorts, like she hasn't been sleeping well.  In fact, all of them look like they haven't been having a good time for a little while, and she realizes that it's because of _her._

 

The sophomores are characteristically quiet (she was pretty sure they didn't speak at all), and the freshman who she had to constantly restrain Rachel from berating while serving as her co-captain where eradicated into a corner, barely even whispering amongst themselves instead of their usual screaming at each other despite being _right next_ to each other.

 

She almost wants to cry when Mr. Schue suggests they sing Quinn's favorite song, and she watches as Rachel gracefully tells the club that Quinn's favorite song is _Let the Sun Shine In_ from _Hair_ and Puck nods silently in agreement because most of the others look incredulous.  And she watches them arrange the song and watches as Brittany, a sophomore named Meg, Kurt, Matt and Tina all cry when Rachel herself cries because she's singing the song so emotionally and cries herself because now she gets what Rachel was talking about earlier.  

 

Quinn knew, of course, that all the stuff that had happened last year was completely forgiven and that she trusted no one more than she trusted the glee club, that they were the people who would always have her back, but it was one thing knowing that and another seeing it.  Afterwards, they all call the club off early because neither Santana or Rachel or Finn can get Brittany to stop crying, and ususally Finn's impression of Elmo would do it.  Mr. Schuester grabs Rachel before he leaves, though, and tells her she's doing a good job with the club even though her co-captain is gone, and that he knows she and Quinn _are_ close (Quinn appreciates the emphasis he puts on 'are') and that everything will work out.  Rachel nods and tries to clear her still-misty eyes after he walks out, turning back to the not-so-empty room and looking around expectantly.

 

Quinn drops words for now and walks over to Rachel, throwing her arms around the smaller girl and hugging tightly, trying to ignore the way she's crying a little into Rachel's shoulder and trying to ignore the way Rachel's arms settle perfectly into the middle of her back.  They stand like that for at least a minute, until Rachel mumbles into Quinn's shoulder.

 

"Quinn."

 

Quinn makes a noise of acknowledgement.

 

"I think you need to take a shower."

 

Quinn makes a noise of agreement.

 

//

 

While Quinn is in the shower before her dads get home, Rachel gets called by an unknown number, her phone blaring _"Girl, your sex is on fire,"_ loudly.  She presses ignore, but the last few digits in the number look familiar and she looks back through her call log to find that it's the same number that called her yesterday when she went to get Quinn at her house.  

 

Before she can even contemplate calling the number back, her daddy is opening the front door and shouting up the stairs that he's home.

 

 


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _I have had many adventures as an invisible man -_ H.G. Wells

Rachel doesn't even have time to consider doing anything else but panic until her father is standing in her doorway, with his arms crossed and sympathy playing across his face before he notices the shower running and Rachel sitting alone on the bed.  He looks around the room, before his eyes land on Finn's letterman jacket cast on her desk chair - she had forgotten to give it back to him after last night when the others had picked her up.  Then his eyes slide back to her and then behind her, to the mussed bed - Quinn hadn't fixed it after she left this morning. 

 

Rachel has never before felt so ready to kill the girl for such an oversight, because now her daddy is looking at her with wide eyes, his arms crossing tighter, and she knows what he's thinking and she starts to open her mouth to explain just as Quinn starts singing in the shower to herself (and if her daddy was at all paying attention, he would recognize her voice and her habit of singing songs from _A Very Potter Musical_ at the top of her lungs), but he seems to recognize only that it's a girl singing in her shower.

 

"Rachel," he finally starts, his eyes widening just a little more as Quinn sings the line, _'Imma take you up to Winnipeg, that's in Canada!'_ probably as sexily as Quinn can sing (which is very, very sexily in Rachel's not-very-humble opinion).  "Rachel, I know you're upset about Quinn, but replacing her with some other girl is _not -_ "

 

Rachel's eyes widen in accordance to her father's _far too loud_ assertion about Rachel's feelings towards Quinn.  She hadn't _told_ her dads about her feelings, they had sat her down and spoken to her about the dangers of lesbian sex (which had been an altogether horrifying conversation, both with its content and the implications such an occurrence brought out).  Rachel had, of course, cracked and clarified the situation for her fathers, trying not to cry as her voice trembled when she explained that she _loved_ Quinn, and she would _love_ to have lots and lots of lesbian sex with her (her fathers had looked both triumphant and off-put about the thought of her and Quinn engaging in lovemaking), but Quinn didn't feel that way about her or any girl.  They had only looked back at her oddly, but she assumed it was a cross between lingering disgust and sympathy for her.

 

Of course, her fathers constantly referenced the situation, trying to get her to say something to the girl or, alternatively, just _assuming_ that they had somehow gotten together when they came back from the movies giggling over something or another.  They never said anything in front of Quinn that Rachel knew of - her fathers weren't really into bothering people Rachel was with or interested in - but it was unnerving, because they would see them together and smile like she and Quinn had announced that Rachel _really_ was that good and Quinn was pregnant once more and that her fathers would be grandfathers.

 

And Rachel always had to remind them and herself that all levels of that situation were utterly impossible - the lesbian relationship, the lesbian debauchery and then the subsequent pregnancy.  The first two were at least emotionally impossible compared to the biological impossibility of the second one.  Although, Rachel had never really considered invisibility possible either.

 

She immediately clamped her hand over her father's mouth, thanking the lord that Quinn was still singing, although it now appeared to be the theme song of _Full House._

 

"Daddy," Rachel starts, unconsciously copying her father's speech pattern.  "First of all, Quinn and I are _still_ not together, so I wouldn't be _replacing_ her.  Second, I could _never_ replace Quinn, in any form, from enemy to friend to any illogical and impossible fantasy you harbor about us ever being together.  Third, I assure you that I would _never_ have sexual relations with any person, whether it be Quinn or Finn or any other person if I knew you would be coming home in a matter of hours.  Also, I would be much more romantic about the situation.  There would be candles."

 

Her father just stares at her, removing her hand and looking confused.  

 

"Then why is there someone in your shower?"  

 

Rachel doesn't really have an answer for that, just opens and closes her mouth unnecessarily, because nothing of interest is coming out.  Before she says anything, Quinn switches songs, to Rachel's favorite popular music song _ever, Falling Slowly._ Most people wouldn't expect such a pick from her, she knows, but she is a fan of rabid romanticism, as evidenced by her assertion that candles would be present if she were to ever engage in sexual relations.  But _Once_ was the first movie she and Quinn ever saw together (Quinn had claimed it was weird but the music was good, and Rachel had been so in awe of being in Quinn's room and not being attacked that she had just nodded) and she really did _love_ the song.  

 

She and Quinn had once sang through the entire soundtrack together, with Quinn taking Glen Hansard's voice because her voice sounded gorgeous at a lower level, not because she sounded like a man, and Rachel taking Marketa Irglova's parts while they were making dinner together - all four of them, she and Quinn and her dads.  That was a wonderful night - Quinn had hugged her for a full five minutes out on her doorstep, obviously trying to reign in her emotion because it was obvious to all of them that Quinn fit in so _well_ with Rachel and her dads and she had already left to move back in her with parents.  It was the first night Rachel realized how very much she was in love with Quinn, made amazingly obvious when Quinn had crawled into bed after Rachel, smiling into Rachel's upper arm and saying that she was glad Rachel had let her stay.

 

All this allows her daddy to recognize Quinn's voice now that Quinn's switching off the shower and her singing becomes distinctly _hers,_ his face changes again to complete happiness and then more confusion.

 

"Rachel," he starts again.  "Rachel, why is Quinn in your shower?"  This time, his voice rises to at least a loud question, and Rachel knows that Quinn hears because her singing stops abruptly.  

 

"Daddy." Rachel's still copying her daddy's speaking pattern.  "She's not technically in the shower anymore." 

 

They stare each other down for at least thirty seconds, before Rachel recognizes the muscles in her father's arms twitching and makes a dive towards the bathroom door and throwing herself in front of it just as he nearly crashes into her.  They stare at each other some more, neither of them willing to back down, up until the door opening and Rachel falling backwards.  Quinn catches her, at least, and Rachel feels the taller girl's arms slip around her in a back-to-front hug, before Quinn speaks.

 

"Hey Mr. Berry," she says lightly, maneuvering her and Rachel out of the bathroom with her still invisible self - Rachel had made the girl change when they got home and allowed Quinn to help Rachel with her homework before _really_ pushing the shower thing, and by then her invisible clothes were dry.  Rachel was unsure how the invisible clothes thing worked, but it was weird to a degree of around a thousand seeing Quinn in a kind of form - her clothes formed to her body and more or less showed her shape, but Rachel couldn't see _Quinn,_ not really.  

 

For his part, her daddy looks extremely dumbfounded.  She assumes it's because it's obvious that Rachel is leaning against something, setting her hands on _something_ on her ribs, and Quinn's apparently disembodied voice.  Rachel, for her part, is becoming less and less concerned about her father's more and more confused facial expression and is focusing more and more on Quinn's body behind hers - no matter how many times they stand close to each other or hug each other or when Rachel drags Quinn off somewhere by her hand, she gets distracted and giddy and it feels like she's overheating, but it's so nice, because Quinn still has her arms around Rachel, allowing the smaller girl to lean backwards.

 

"Quinn?" Her daddy spins around a few times, and Rachel feels and hears Quinn giggle behind her.  He locks his eyes on Rachel, or rather, beyond Rachel, because he recognizes where the sound is coming from.  "Rachel, what's going on?" he asks, crossing his arms again.  Quinn lets Rachel go after moving her to a position where she can support herself and steps around the shorter girl to place her hand on Mr. Berry's arm.

 

And then both girls shriek as he collapses to the ground and faints.

 

//

 

Quinn feels enormously guilty right about now.  In fact, she's crying into Rachel's shoulder as Rachel talks her dad through this entire situation as her other dad lays out on the couch with an ice pack pressed to the back of his head.  He keeps _groaning_ and every time he does, Quinn feels like her heart is being kicked and she gives a little gasp into Rachel's shoulder.  Rachel's grip on her hand is tight, and the girl sounds a little pained to be talking while Quinn is crying, but that only makes Quinn feel worse and it's a big cycle of crying.

 

Finally though, Rachel's dad Evan reaches out for Quinn or where he assumes she is.  Before he can get close to the empty air he's reaching for, Rachel sighs and grabs his arm and moves it so it lands on the top of Quinn's head, muttering something about the girl seeming taller while not invisible.  

 

"Quinn, it's okay.  Adam's just...dramatic," he says, turning back to look at his husband on the couch.  "And, you being invisible is kind of surprising."  

 

Quinn smiles against Rachel's shoulder, feeling Evan's hand in hair and Rachel's hand in hers just as Evan groans something like, 'yeah, it's okay.'

 

Sometimes she wonders why she left this house.  Especially when she started to feel the way she does now about Rachel, it was so _hard._ But something in her missed home, and over the week she and her parents had talked about her moving back in, she had felt like they were really _trying_ to be...something.  And sometimes it still seems like that, like they're reaching out just a little.  She gets called down for things at random times, to watch the old _Star Trek_ movies or the TV show, but it's weird, it's _really weird._ It doesn't ever feel weird with the Berrys.  She feels like she could stand up on their kitchen table and declare her love for Rachel and her dads would be completely okay with it and Rachel would at least let her down easy, because they are the nicest people imaginable.  

 

"So, you're invisible!  I mean, that's interesting and previously known to be impossible, but okay.  In the sense that you're not missing.  Or dead, I guess," Evan says cheerfully, frowning when both Adam and Rachel make faces at the thought of Quinn being dead.  "Not that I thought you were dead.  I mean, I considered it, but then I considered how miserable this house would become with Thing One and Thing Two here.  And then I prayed that you were alive because quality tissues and therapy cost a lot of money.  I should probably stop talking about this."

 

"Yes, you should," Adam moans, sitting up slowly and pulling the icepack away from his head and looking around.  "Where is she?" 

 

"She's right here, Daddy," Rachel says, holding up her seemingly empty hand.  

 

"Right.  Well, that doesn't help," he remarks, settling for looking in Quinn's regulary direction.  "Quinnie, I fainted.  It was hardly your fault.  Really, it doesn't matter, because you're alive and Rachel will stop looking like someone's gone and killed her goldfish - "

 

"Daddy, _you_ were the one who killed my goldfish - "

 

"Once, honey, and - "

 

"I only had goldfish _once_!"

 

"I can't believe you two are still having this argument eleven years later.  If I had known this would happen, I would've just let Adam replace the things," Evan remarks, looking toward where he thinks Quinn is amusedly.  Quinn smiles back, but realizes no once can tell, and pulls Rachel's hand in hers up to her face quickly.  Rachel diverts her attention from the conversation to what's going on with Quinn almost immediately before she feels the grin on her face and smiles in response.

 

"Quinn's smiling, dad.  And daddy, how could you _dare_ think of replacing Phantom and Christine?" she screeches, as Quinn pulls her hand back away from her face and laces their fingers together happily.  

 

"Because you are just like me, honey, and I knew your grudge would be long-winded and strong even on your death bed.  Your last words will be, 'Person-who-I-am-married-to-who-I-swore-I'd-out-survive-but-am-now-failing-and-am-very-upset-about-it, the minute I get to heaven, I'm going to give my daddy a piece of my mind about killing Phantom and Christine.  Also, I love you.'  And then you'd check out and the person you were supposed to be out-surviving would cry because they found your quirks endearing and now will never have them again."

 

All three of the other occupants in the room stare at Adam until he shakes his head and mutters something about watching too many Lifetime movies.

 

"So, anyway, Quinn's invisible.  What's up with that?" Adam asks, changing the subject and ignoring everyone smiling at him.

 

"I woke up this way on Sunday, and then I called Rachel last night.  I don't know how it happened either," Quinn mutters, looking down at Rachel, who has a pretty good lock on where she is, her eyes looking sort of at Quinn, not through her.  

 

"But what'd you do all day today?" Evan asks, frowning a little.  Rachel is still looking up at her, but she closes her eyes and places her hands on Quinn's face.  Quinn closes her eyes in accordance, letting the feeling of Rachel caress her face wash over her.  It's sweet, and she knows Rachel doesn't mean anything by it but just figuring out if she's crying or something, but it feels so _nice_ and it makes her feel like someone's seeing her, really seeing her.

 

"Oh, Quinn just attempted to bring the entire school to its knees is all, dad.  She somehow got paint on Coach Sylvester's tracksuit," Rachel laughs, her eyes still closed.  Quinn opens her eyes to glance over at Evan and Adam, who are looking at Rachel with a look that Quinn can only describe as shining in each of their eyes.  It almost makes her want to cry, because they're smiling and Adam has his hand over his heart and Rachel doesn't even notice. 

 

Her voice sticks in her throat and she just slips her eyes closed again, letting Rachel slide her small, non-mannish hands down to Quinn's huge grin.

 

//

 

Eating dinner goes quite strangely for Quinn.  For her, it's weird enough, because it's like a floating spoon is feeding her and it's just _weird,_ but Adam and Evan spend a lot more time staring at Quinn eating than they themselves do eating.  Rachel doesn't seem all that concerned, because she's already seen Quinn eat, and she's perfectly content to carry on the entire conversation about her day.  

 

Eventually though, Adam thinks out loud.

 

"Can you imagine the logistics of being invisible?"  

 

Quinn's about to say, _yes, she can_ because she is invisible and she's had to figure out the logistics mostly on her own, but Rachel's already talking.

 

"I know, daddy!  How on earth would they have children?  Would their children be invisible?" she asks, chewing thoughtfully between random questions.  "And that would require having sex first!  Do you think you could see an invisible person if you spilled something on them?  Would you have to spill something on them to have sex?  It's so interesting!"

 

Now all Quinn can think about is whipped cream and Rachel.

 

"Rachel, you are such a teenager.  Imagine the logistics of functioning as a normal human being!  If you wanted to keep it a secret that you were invisible, I mean.  It would be strange if you were open about it, too, I suppose though.  Quinn, are you naked?" Evan asks, turning to look towards Quinn, who's been staring at Rachel's chest for his entire spiel.

 

"Huh? Oh, NO!  No, no, no, I have my clothes on.  They're invisible too.  God, no.  Not naked," she mutters, shoveling food into her mouth now that she's regained her faculties.

 

"An invisible person would be a great spy or something.  Quinn, would you consider working for the CIA?" Adam asks, before he looks over at his daughter and notices a strange look on her face.  She looks like she's gone faraway in her brain.  "Rachel, honey, close your mouth and look like you have a functioning brain."

 

Rachel immediately does shut her mouth, copying Quinn and shoveling food into her mouth.

 

"Do spies really have to sleep with enemy spies?  Because that would be weird," Evan says, rubbing at his chin thoughtfully.

 

"Dad, you were just telling me I was a teenager because I was talking about sex, and now you're talking about sex," Rachel says, pointing accusingly at her father.  "So you're a teenager too, now."

 

"Okay, fine, I am.  So, Rach, have you got any, like, crushes?" he asks, chewing loudly on his chicken to mimic gum.  

 

"I revoke my previous statement if you stop doing that."

 

"I accept this offering and offer another:  you do the dishes while I go to bed."

 

"But you promised ice cream!" 

 

"Fine.  But you can go get the whipped cream from the pantry," Evan says, he and Rachel getting up in a synchronized motion, her trailing off into the pantry and him into the kitchen.  Adam just laughs.

 

Quinn is stuck back on the whipped cream and Rachel thing.

 

"Hey, Quinn?" Adam says, pulling Quinn's attention away from _bad thoughts_ and back to the actual world.  "I'm happy you're okay, honey.  Rachel was...pretty bad for a little bit there.  I mean, _I_ was pretty bad, but she made me look like a statue.  It's just...seeing your car and no you was a little terrifying.  I know you and your parents don't always get along, but _God,_ I wonder how they must feel now."

 

Quinn nods a little, before she clears her throat.

 

"Thanks for keeping it a secret while we figure it out," she mutters, poking at her plate as she listens to Evan and Rachel fix up their sundaes.

 

"It's nothing.  We know you're important to Rachel, and you're important to us.  You're practically our daughter by now, with the amount of time you spend around here," he laughs, before his eyes take on the look they had earlier.  "You know, Quinn..."

 

Before he can continue, though, Rachel and Evan are sweeping back in and Quinn's sundae has every topping she likes and a smiley face drawn with chocolate syrup draped over the huge helping of whipped cream.

 

God, she loves these people.

 

//  
 

When they finally go to sleep, Quinn smells a lot nicer than she did before, not that she smelled altogether bad.  But Rachel feels Quinn press her head right into the space between Rachel's neck and shoulder, and feels the girl's smile against her skin and _God_ it's amazing.  It's also amazing that she thinks that any of this counts as anything really, but she can't help herself with Quinn, not since the moment the girl had let her hold Caroline before the Baums had left with a beautiful newborn baby girl and Quinn had left with Rachel and her dads and Quinn had crawled into Rachel's bed that night and done this: pressing her face into Rachel's neck.  Except, then, the girl had cried and Rachel hadn't known what to do and there had been a terrible pain in her chest at the sight of Quinn crying.

 

So much had changed in a year.  

 

Rachel gets so overcome with emotion that she has to breathe deep a few times and blink incessantly, but she can't restrain herself enough to stop from kissing the crown of Quinn's head.  The other girl doesn't say anything about it, just nuzzles closer and hums contentedly, probably so close to being asleep that she's probably dreaming Josh Hartnett was kissing her (Quinn had said something once about liking brown doe-eyes, which explained both Finn and Puck).  

 

Just as she drifts off to sleep though, she feels Quinn slide an arm over her stomach and a kiss being pressed to the underside of her jaw, but she's asleep before she can say anything about it.

 

 


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _I have had many adventures as an invisible man -_ H.G. Wells

Quinn's dream is the same as it always is.

  
It's Central Park, at the reservoir's edge and the ducks are squawking out on the glassy surface as a little girl tosses pieced of bread onto the water.  Rachel is talking animatedly with a few random fans, grinning widely as they compliment her and taking quick glances over at the girl every thirty seconds or so.  Quinn is standing back a few feet, enjoying the way the sun hits Rachel's hair, perfectly happy to just stand there and watch _her_ for the rest of her life.

 

The ring on her left hand is just a symbol of that.  It glints in the sunlight, and she absently watches the light refract off of it as she turns her hand over and around in the air.  Rachel gives a bright laugh, and it almost feels like Quinn's world brightens in accordance.  She's smiling at the little girl who's wandered towards them with bread crumbs all over her hands, picking her up and swinging her back and forth a little, kissing her cheek and smiling brighter as the girl leans forward to kiss her cheek in response. 

 

It's no coincidence that the little girl looks considerably like Rachel, and Quinn smiles brighter when the girl in Rachel's arms spots Quinn, squealing happily.  Rachel glances back and makes sure the girl hasn't spotted a horse or something and sets her down and whispers into the little girl's ear before she nudges her toward Quinn with a grin on her face.

 

The girl runs straight into Quinn's waiting arms, allowing herself to be pulled up.  She sets her head on Quinn's shoulder before she edges a little closer to her ear.

 

"Momma says she loves you," the girl whispers, like it's a big secret.  Quinn smiles, pressing a kiss to the girl's forehead and she just feels _happy,_ because this is her dream, this life.

 

But it really is all a dream.

 

//

 

Quinn hates that dream.  It reminds her of Caroline, first of all, and even though she's decidedly over that entire situation, it sometimes sticks out at her when she sees people with her kids that once upon a time she could've had a kid.  And she _does_ want kids, at some point, but she hadn't wanted one as a recently turned seventeen-year-old possible lesbian, and the decision to let Caroline go, in the end, was easy.  The little girl in her dream really was a mini-Rachel, and it _burned,_ seeing her and imagining that she could have Rachel and a little girl and a life of happiness.  It was stupid, almost - she was just a junior in high school, and she had regular dreams of being married and having a little kid, mixed up amongst dreams about legs and random ones with screaming Sue Sylvesters.

 

But, apparently, her life was just completely _against_ normalcy.

 

When she opens her eyes, she realizes that it's four in the morning, and Rachel has somehow reversed their position and is currently sprawled out over most of the bed, her nose just brushing Quinn's hair and her hand wrapped around Quinn's arm.  It's kind of _really_ adorable, the way her nose is scrunched up and her eyebrows are knit together, like a puzzling thought has just entered into whatever dreamland she's hanging out in.  Quinn's surprised when Rachel mumbles something and pulls herself closer to the _(still,_ damn it) invisible girl, sliding her hand over Quinn's toned stomach and keeping it right over where her appendix once was.

 

She immediately thinks back to the day she had woken up and had been in so much pain, stumbling into her parents room bleary-eyed and practically doubled over.  Her dad claims to this day that she had then thrown up, but she was probably so concerned with the feeling of her insides being ripped out that she doesn't remember it at all.  It had been her freshman year, probably almost two years ago exactly.  

 

Quinn's distracted from her thoughts even further when Rachel pulls herself a little closer, setting her head against Quinn's arm and fully wrapping her arm around the blonde.  It's _always_ like this, when they have sleepovers - one of them inevitably gets as close as possible to the other.  She doesn't think much of it, really, and slides her arm around Rachel, pulling her a little closer and rubbing the small of her back.  The smaller girl's expression clears up, and she smiles, making a happy noise.

 

Just because she doesn't really want to get out of Rachel's unconscious embrace, she starts to look around the room.  There's a huge bulletin board hanging over Rachel's desk, and the entire room is decorated with musical posters, some of them signed and some not.  Rachel's bathroom door is open, providing a glance into the meticulously cleaned counter.  On Rachel's bedside table, however, is a veritable gold mine.

 

There are all sorts of pictures - ranging from photo strips of Rachel and her dads through the years to acting head shots to posed photos of Rachel in all sorts of sequined dance outfits.  Towards the forefront, however, are ones of the glee kids.  There's one of Finn and Puck kissing either side of Rachel's face at a competition somewhere, another of Santana tossing Rachel into a pool with her trademark smirk displayed.  There's one of Rachel talking animatedly to a delighted young child who had seen them perform at an invitational maybe three months ago.  Quinn's actually in that picture, watching Rachel watch the girl with a half-smile on her face and one hand wrapped in Rachel's.

 

There are even more with Quinn, though, than anyone else.  There's a picture Evan took of them after the state fair, with Quinn fast asleep on Rachel's shoulder in the back seat of the car.  There's another picture Evan must have taken, of both of them running around in Rachel's back yard in the rain, Rachel having just gotten ahold of Quinn's waist to slow her down, mid-laugh.  There's a fairly recent one that Quinn doesn't quite expect Rachel to have sitting on her beside table: one of Quinn and her parents and her sister, sitting around after another glee competition while they wait for the judges to decide.  

 

It's not that Rachel _hates_ Quinn's family - that's not why she's surprised.  It's more that Rachel has never said anything one way or the other on Quinn's family, except to say that if her family ever treated her in a way she didn't like that Quinn had a home at the Berrys.  

 

It had been a hard, horrible decision, moving back in with her parents.  Only a week and a half after Caroline, and still trying to keep herself out of an endless cycle of self-doubt, and mostly succeeding due to Rachel, Evan, and Adam's superhuman efforts, her parents and her sister Chelsea had shown up at the doorstep.

 

They had talked the entire week, about the moving back in thing.  Her parents were obviously trying to be _better,_ and her sister seemed close to tears she was so apologetic, but she wasn't sure what to make of any of it.  It was easy enough to take Quinn back in now that she wasn't as fat as a cow (no matter what Rachel or Puck or anyone said, she really _was_ rather big towards the end) and she at least _looked_ like the perfect little angel Quinn Fabray.  But she was falling in love with her best friend who was a girl, and that certainly wasn't in line with the way her parents _were._

 

The deciding factor had been the night her parents had invited all three of the Berrys and Quinn for dinner.  It had been awkward and it was decidedly obvious that her parents were uncomfortable, but after a few highballs, her mother and Rachel were discussing the merits of _My Fair Lady,_ Julie Andrews vs. Audrey Hepburn, and her dad was discussing something complicated but finance-y with Evan.  Her sister had managed to drag out every single photo album of the entire family and was proceeding to show _every single_ baby photo of Quinn to Adam.  It wasn't exactly _normal._ But it was her family, now.

 

Her house was generally silent most days.  Occasionally she would wander downstairs and watch a movie with her dad or make dinner with her mom.  When Chelsea was home, they would all go out to dinner and laugh and have fun.  Before, the house was filled with tension and she couldn't really _breathe,_ but now, it was just a comfortable, complicated silence that she knew how to combat.

 

Rachel draws Quinn out of her thoughts once more, her eyes fluttering open to look blearily at the way her hand has settled on Quinn's invisible hip, flexing her fingers and pressing down a little.  Quinn's pretty sure Rachel isn't entirely awake, especially when the girl burrows just a little closer and mumbles something about teddy bears into Quinn's shoulder and closes her eyes again.

 

Quinn smiles a little, placing her hand on Rachel's and rubbing more at her back, leaning down to kiss the top of her head, remembering vaguely Rachel doing the same to her before she had fallen asleep.  She also remembers her return kiss along Rachel's jaw.

 

It's hard to be Rachel's friend when it sometimes seems as though they're so much more.  When they're this close and it's warm and safe and Quinn feels protected _and_ protective. 

 

In the end, though, it's always just a dream.

 

//

 

Rachel's dream is going spectacularly _un_ well.  Quinn is hiding, or, alternatively, is missing.  Rachel can hear her, whispering and singing and laughing, but she isn't _here,_ which is annoying.  Because Rachel can't really be without Quinn, a fact made astoundingly obvious by her less than healthy reaction to Quinn's invisibility and subsequent day of hiding.  

 

What's worse is that every time it seems as though she's close, she reaches out and grasps only empty air.  

 

She doesn't realize how true this is until she wakes up with a fluttering of her eyes and her hands are grasping at a bed sheet, with Quinn nowhere to be found.

 

//

 

Kurt and Mercedes are waiting outside when she finally gathers her senses enough to realize she needs to go to school and that maybe Quinn is playing tricks on her and it'll all be okay.  Even if it _doesn't_ really feel okay, because Quinn could be anywhere, far away from Rachel, lying in a ditch and dying or something.  Her brain feels like it's exploding and shutting down at the same time because it _hurt,_ more than anything to lose Quinn.  And it was _heaven_ having her back.  And now she was supposed to just be gone again?

 

Rachel has a strong urge to fall to her knees and curse The Powers That Be.  

 

Kurt pats her shoulder with a small smile as she climbs into the front seat of his gigantic, shiny SUV and Mercedes immediately says something about everything being okay, or something.  Rachel is unsure, because they're driving past the telephone pole Quinn's car had been wrapped around (kind of, not really) only two days ago.  The pole is barely tilted, and there's no sign of anything, but Rachel can still see the smoking engine and the metal twisted around the pole, Quinn's door thrown open and the blood leading down the sidewalk...

 

Which only leads her back to the _hopefully_ unnecessary fears about Quinn's current predicament, wherever she is.

 

Rachel _knows_   she shouldn't really take it personally - Quinn was the sort of person to do things as she saw fit and often forgot to inform others of her plans unless she needed their help to put them in motion.  Whenever Quinn stays over too late after school at Rachel's, she gets a call from her dad, explaining that she's fine and that she's with Rachel.  It's comforting, Rachel supposes, that being with Rachel is good enough proof that Quinn is okay to Quinn's parents, but it isn't comforting at all that Quinn is incapable of at least leaving a note.

 

It also probably wouldn't be comforting to Quinn's parents, despite their apparent like of Rachel, that Rachel has recurring lewd dreams about their daughter.

 

But that's beside the point, because by the time they get to school, Rachel's not even breathing correctly, her chest rising and falling at an imperfect rhythm and cadence, and Kurt's getting yelled at by Santana while Brittany grabs Rachel's waist and pulls her into a tight hug in the middle of the school hallway.

 

This is how the entire glee club ends up in the auditorium at the beginning of the school day, all of them completely willing to skip their first period classes to hang out and revel in a sense of shared melancholia.  It isn't technically the _entire_ glee club - just the original members and two or three sophomore Cheerios who Quinn had taken under her wing.  No one is quite sure what to say, or if they should say anything, but eventually, Puck breaks the silence.

 

"Where would she go?" he asks, rubbing at his shaved head a little.  His mohawk had disappeared halfway through Quinn's pregnancy on a bet gone wrong and he had never bothered to grow it back.

 

Rachel wants to answer that she doesn't know, but she knows that the way she doesn't know is different than the way everyone else doesn't know.  For all the glee club knows, Quinn is dead.  Rachel has knowledge, at least, that Quinn was alive four hours ago.  

 

"She hates it here, man.  We all hate it here," Finn answers, his eyes boring into the stage floor with determination.  "She'd go anywhere to get away from here."

 

"There are plenty of things here that she loves, Hudson," Santana snaps, her eyes staring straight at Rachel, probably making sarcastic remarks in her head about the state of Rachel's tear-stained face.  

 

Puck only looks silently over at his childhood best friend and then at the space between him and Rachel, knowing exactly who's supposed to be sitting there.  Rachel reads his thought process perfectly and a fresh round of tears takes over, her head shaking back and forth as she pulls her knees up and wraps her arms around them.  She had elected not to wear a skirt today, hoping in a weird sense that wearing her 'normal' clothes would make Quinn happy and that she'd appear.  No such luck, apparently.

 

"Yeah, like Warbuck," Brittany says sincerely, even though most of the people on the stage have no idea what she's talking about.  

 

"Her teddy bear," Santana finally supplies, as everyone looks around uncomfortably at each other.  "It's her teddy bear."

 

Rachel nods a little, feeling Matt slide his arm around her shoulder and rub her back.  If anything, it only escalates the panicky, shaky feeling running through her and he drops his hand and murmurs that he's sorry and she can only nod a little more.

 

Everyone's silent for a little while, everyone sniffling and trying not to devolve into the crying mess Rachel is currently being.  

 

"She can't be...you know.  She just can't," Puck mumbles, loud enough for the three or four people closest to him to hear.  Rachel, quite inconveniently, _does_ hear him and shivers a little at the implication that _Puck,_ Quinn's champion in several ways, in a roundabout way, has contemplated that Quinn could be dead.

 

Her phone rings suddenly, the now familiar _Sex on Fire_ blaring through the silence.  Puck looks up confusedly as Rachel looks down at it and presses the off button before she can even really see the number.

 

//

 

The rest of the school day is hell on wheels and most of it is spent in the bathroom crying into Santana or Brittany's shoulder anyway, so Rachel does not honestly expect glee to be any better.  Of course, it decides to get worse.

 

Mr. Schuester already looks apprehensive when he notices the tension in the room and the swollen eyes being sported by a number of his students.  Rachel notices the way his eyes linger on her with a sort of fear outside of his fear of her talking too much, and she knows exactly what the problem is when he starts pulling out new sheet music.

 

"As you know, our state competition is a week from now.  And...we need to re-work our set list, due to Quinn's...disappearance.  So I brought in a couple of songs," he says, watching the entire club shift nervously and Finn's arm around the back of Rachel's chair drop to her shoulder and squeeze.

 

"Mr. Schuester, I assure you, Quinn will be back by then," she says, standing up quickly, because something in the way he's saying this makes the blood in her brain rush around and it's hard to hear over the whooshing it makes.  He almost sounds resigned, and even though Rachel herself is not in the best state of mind about this situation, she is not ready to give up.  She's not _ever_ ready to give up.

 

"Rachel..." he starts, setting down the music on the piano and moving closer to her.  Just as his hand lands on Rachel's shoulder, she feels it.  A hot feeling of overwhelming _something,_ right in her hands, and she's jumping away from him and shouting.

 

"She'll be here!" she screams, pointing at him accusingly.  He, for his part, stops in his tracks, watching her warily.  Behind him, she can see the surprised looks on everyone's faces, because no one's seen her _really_ snap, not even her closest friends.  Only Quinn knows what to do with Rachel when she gets like this, and that knowledge does nothing but make Rachel want to curl up in a ball and _die._

 

So she runs.

 

//

 

Finn is the who picks her up from where she's sitting in front of the telephone pole, handing her off to Santana, who has the good sense to not say anything even though Rachel can tell she wants to scream at her for being stupid.  Puck is waiting in the back seat once they all get in Finn's car, and Rachel remembers what Quinn had said the day before at their lunch:  _It's nice to know I picked a good group of childhood friends._

 

Rachel's really thankful too, especially when they let her go into the house alone and unsupervised because she just wants to _sleep._

 

Except, when she finally pulls of her shoes (she realizes vaguely that she's _once again_ put her inside workout shoes in an _outside_ environment) and crashes onto her waiting bed, she crashes right into _something_ and bounces right back off and onto the floor.

 

Quinn is immediately near her, her hands on Rachel's head, giggling a little, and all Rachel can think is, _is this a dream?_ because it has to be.  It _must_ be.

 

"Quinn?" she asks, her voice croaking just enough for the giggling to stop and Quinn to take a breath of air in, hovering over.

 

"Rachel," Quinn mutters, right before she gasps a little, "Rachel, oh my God, I'm so sorry, I totally forgot to tell you where I was going - "

 

"You're okay," Rachel says, ignoring whatever Quinn is trying to say, because her thing is seeming much more important right now.  She sits up a little, feeling Quinn's hands slide down to her shoulders and then closing her eyes and reaching for Quinn's face.  "You're okay," she whispers, sliding her fingers all over the girl's face.

 

"Yeah," Quinn says, and Rachel can feel her breathing pause and then re-start, like Rachel's fingers had stumbled on a reset button along her lips.  "Yeah, I'm okay."

 

Rachel pulls the girl in for a hug, laughing a little in relief when she hits a solid body that has no gaping wounds and that is so decidedly Quinn, judging only by the feeling of warmth that seeps through her body.  They sit like that for a good few minutes, Rachel just breathing Quinn in, until it's just not enough.

 

She pulls back a little, sliding her fingers back down towards Quinn's lips and feeling Quinn's hesitant smile forming there.  She wants to kiss her in this moment, more than any other, ever before.

 

And so she does.

 

 


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _I have had many adventures as an invisible man -_ H.G. Wells

Quinn is unprepared for the feeling of Rachel's soft lips on hers.  Completely, utterly unprepared.  And by the time she has a chance to process this occurrence, Rachel is kissing her all over, on her forehead and her cheeks and crying and Quinn can't even breathe because Rachel's holding her so tight and she can taste strawberry lip gloss on her bottom lip.  

 

And then Rachel is pushing her head underneath Quinn's chin, thunking almost painfully against her collarbone, and she's so _small,_ and she's shaking, crying, pulling at Quinn, and Quinn can't think of anything to do.

 

"I'm sorry," she whispers into the girl's hair.  "I'm _so_ sorry, Rach.  I'm sorry.  I didn't think when I left, I'm _sorry,_ " she mumbles, pulling Rachel almost into her lap, trying to gather the girl into order.  It _hurts,_ knowing she's done this to Rachel, but it's kind of awesome that Rachel cares enough to completely lose control of her emotions, even if it is heartbreak.

 

"You're _here,"_ Rachel whimpers against Quinn's collarbone, clutching at the invisible shirt on Quinn's shoulder and pulling herself as close to Quinn as possible.  "You're here," she whispers, leaning further into Quinn and pressing her forehead into Quinn's neck, right before she presses a kiss there.

 

They both freeze simultaneously. 

 

Rachel is the one to break the moment, shoving herself backwards and hitting her closet door with force, fear written all over her face.  "Quinn, Quinn, I'm sorry, I don't know what I was doing, I'm _sorry,_ " she whimpers, tears gathering again in her eyes at full force.  Quinn just stares at her, unsure of what to say.

 

This moment feels like a very important one, like something she can't screw up.  So she just says it, what's been building in her for a year or more, forever.

 

"I love you," Quinn whispers, and Rachel freezes again, tears running silently down her face as she opens and closes her mouth haplessly.  "I love you, Rachel." 

 

"What?" the other girl whispers, looking around the room wildly, probably looking for some sign of where Quinn is.  Quinn stands up and steps closer, her heart pounding in her ears.

 

"I love you.  I've loved you for a long time now.  I love that you don't shut up and that you shut up when I tell you to.  I love the way you laugh...I love you, Rachel.  I love you so much that I can't even explain why.  I just do," she says, reaching for Rachel's hand and gripping it tightly.  Rachel looks stunned, a glimmer of _something_ in her eyes that Quinn can no longer ignore.

 

She surges forward, pressing her lips against Rachel's and feeling the other girl give a whimper and she can't help but give one back because Rachel's kissing her back, letting go of her hand to slide her small arms around Quinn's waist, pulling them as close as possible.  And they keep kissing, Quinn pushing Rachel further into the closet door, her hands landing in Rachel's hair and pushing through the locks and moaning when Rachel bites her lip, because _this is happening._

 

 _This is happening,_ finally.

 

Rachel pushes her back and they just gasp for air for a moment, before Rachel breathes out, "I love you, too, Quinn," and Quinn doesn't even have a chance to think _I can't believe this_ before Rachel's pressing her back and back and back, kissing her neck and her knees hit Rachel's bed, making her fall backwards.  She scrambles up onto the thing fully, pulling Rachel with her before rolling them over and kissing Rachel again, moaning when the girl's mouth parts and her tongue slides in and _god, this is amazing._

 

"I love you," Quinn breathes, pulling away from Rachel and kissing down her neck.  "I love you."

 

Rachel moans when Quinn licks at the skin at the base of Rachel's neck because _this is happening_ and Rachel's skin tastes amazing, better than Quinn could've ever imagined.  She tastes something like home, and she keeps licking until Rachel's hip surge upward and press against Quinn's and she stops, looking back up to Rachel.  Rachel herself looks hesitant, almost apologetic, until Quinn takes all the courage she has left and uses it, rolling her hips back towards Rachel, and watches as Rachel's eyes flutter for a second, before they come back open darker than Quinn's ever seen them.  Rachel grabs at Quinn's head, pulling her up for a desperate and hard and _amazing_ kiss, their tongues sliding languidly against each other and it's so hot Quinn can't even breathe because Rachel's hands are sliding all over Quinn and it's just so _amazing._

 

She feels Rachel's hands grab at the hem of her shirt, and even though it's not like Rachel will see anything, because, _duh,_ invisible, Quinn freezes, because if she gets her shirt off, then Rachel's is coming off too and then Quinn won't be able to account for her actions because every fantasy she's ever had about Rachel is culminating here and she dreams about this too often for it to not happen if it gets that far.  She'd _die._

 

Rachel pulls back, her hands sliding up from the hem and landing around Quinn's rib cage, kissing across Quinn's invisible face with her eyes closed before Quinn can feel her breath by her ear, hot and wet, and she feels more than hears Rachel's whispered, "I love you, Quinn."  She can't help the shiver that runs through her, and she turns her face towards Rachel's, kissing her once again, letting her own hands slide towards the buttons on Rachel's shirt and starting in on them, pulling back and kissing at the skin that gets revealed with every button, listening to the hurried breathing Rachel's exhibiting now, feeling Rachel's chest rise and fall quickly underneath her mouth. 

 

"I love you," Quinn whispers into the soft skin of Rachel's stomach, kissing at Rachel's belly button before she gets pulled back up by a light tug at her hair, and is greeted with a soft kiss from the smaller girl, and smiles when she feels Rachel's hands tug once more at the hem of her invisible shirt.

 

//

 

Rachel is completely certain that she has died and gone to heaven, because she can _feel_ Quinn underneath her, can feel the girl's hands running up and down Rachel's back as they kiss, can feel their top halves pressed tightly against each other, completely bare and _god, it's amazing._

 

If this is a dream, Rachel is going to absolutely kill her subconscious because it seems so real.  

 

It seems so real when she feels Quinn kiss her way up her legs, skipping over the underwear the girl is pulling down at the same time, biting at her hipbone and earning a deep moan from Rachel, who wishes she could see the other girl so much, but forgets when her eyes slide shut at the feeling of Quinn's fingers and tongue slipping and sliding _there._

 

And it still seems real ten minutes later when she feels Quinn's breath catch underneath her as Rachel watches the way it seems her fingers are disappearing into thin air except she can feel how _tight_ and _wet_ and _amazing_ it is, and she can feel the way Quinn is trembling around her and beneath her when she gives a soft, keening cry, whispering, "I love you, I love you, I love you," into Rachel's ear.

 

It feels so real, and this time, it is.

 

//

 

Rachel is woken up a few hours later by a shout up the stairs by her daddy.  Quinn gives a grunt of acknowledgement next to her, but just presses her head closer to Rachel and pulls her tighter.  Rachel however gives a little squeal, pushing at Quinn's arm and falling out of bed with a thunk.  This appears to wake Quinn up, and from her position on the floor, she can hear Quinn ask with alarm, "Rach, are you okay?"

 

Rachel has a vision of a naked Quinn asking her this, because Quinn _is_ currently naked, just invisible.  Not for the first time, Rachel momentarily curses said invisibility, but then her dad yells again and Quinn squeaks and rustles around on the bed, probably feeling around for her clothes.

 

"Where's my underwear?!" Rachel whisper-yells over her shoulder, shrugging her bra and shirt on while she's scrambling around for the bright green panties she remembers putting on this morning and Quinn pulling off her a few hours ago.  

 

" _Your_ underwear?  Where's _my_ underwear?!" Quinn whisper-yells back, just as Rachel's searching hands hit Quinn's invisible underwear.  She ignores the dampness of them and throws them onto the bed.  "Oh.  Thanks, I guess.  Do you happen to know where my pants are while you're down there?"

 

"Rachel!  Quinn!" her daddy shouts, sounding louder and closer.  Rachel reluctantly gets up and grabs her pants along the way, yanking open her dresser and pulling out a new set of underwear and whispering, "sorry!" over her shoulder before she walks into the bathroom, just as her dad opens the door.

 

"Hello?" she hears her daddy ask, and Quinn reply, "Uh, hi," like she hasn't just had (really awesome) lesbian sex with Rachel.  

 

Rachel manages to get her underwear and pants on in the correct order and facing the correct directions and throws open the door, distracting her dad from looking interestedly at the way Rachel's blanket is settling over Quinn's invisible legs.  Rachel is momentarily struck by the thought of Quinn's visible legs.  

 

"Oh, there you are.  Okay, so you're both alive and well.  Rachel, your hair is a mess," her daddy remarks, distracting himself.  "And your dad wants you guys down to help make dinner.  So, hurry up and get down here so he'll stop telling me to do things and I can't sit down and watch TV."

 

They both let out a sigh when her daddy closes the door behind him.  Rachel starts to move forward, before her foot catches on what feels like Quinn's pants.  She throws them over to the bed and Quinn giggles a little. 

 

//

 

Dinner is going swimmingly until Evan raises his eyebrows at the ever-deepening blush on Rachel's cheeks and the strange giggling sound emanating from Quinn as her foot advances up Rachel's (unfairly) jean-covered leg.

 

"Okay, what the hell, you two?" he asks, glancing back and forth between Quinn's hovering fork and Rachel's now bright red face.  Rachel looks anywhere but him and Quinn retracts her foot, thunking it painfully against the leg of the table and cursing to herself.  On her other side, Adam watches as Rachel opens and closes her mouth haplessly at her dad.

 

"I mean, you won't stop _giggling._ You haven't giggled this much since you were four and we took you to see _Cats,_ Rachel!  I mean, you haven't looked so happy since..."

 

Evan trails off, looking over in Quinn's direction suspiciously.  Adam gasps and jumps up from the table, then proceeds to bounce around the dining room, screaming something about, "I knew it!"  He stops at his husband's side and proffers his hand, palm up, shouting that he knew it right in his ear.

 

"No, you don't know anything.  Stop it!" Evan shouts at Adam, who doesn't even look chastised, just smiles wickedly at Rachel, who looks both confused and a little afraid at the look she's being given.  

 

"Rachel, honey," Adam starts, walking around to Rachel's side and kneeling beside her.  "Can I ask you something?" he asks, and Rachel looks wide-eyed across the table, probably asking Quinn for some sort of help.  

 

"No?" 

 

"Okay, fine.  Quinn, did you give Rachel the hickey she's currently sporting on her neck?"

 

Quinn is inherently thankful that no one can see the blush on her face, because she's probably turned purple it feels so hot.  She doesn't even know what to say, except that _yes_ it was her and it was _amazing._ She's rather distracted by this series of thought and grunts when Rachel swings her leg and kicks her shin.

 

"Um.  No," she says, rubbing at her shin and glaring at Rachel, even though she can't see the death waves she's being sent by Quinn's eyes.

 

"Okay.  Well, Quinn, I think you should know that Rachel is completely in love with you.  Like, a lot.  And that you love her too, if you didn't know.  You're very repressed," he says, tapping his chin with his index finger as if her being repressed is something that needs to be pondered.

 

" _What?!"_ Rachel screeches, shooting up from her seat and looking between her dads indignantly.  "You've known all this time?!"  Quinn groans and hits her head on the table after she shoves her plate away from her.  

 

"Honey, _everyone_ knows," Adam says soothingly, patting Rachel's shoulder.  "Seriously.  That latina girl keeps telling us that, 'Celine and Preggo just need to jump each other already.'  And the one boy with the lovely fashion sense mentioned that he knew already too," he says.

 

"I _knew_ Santana still called me that," Quinn mutters, shaking her head a little at the stupid nickname that Santana swore she didn't call Quinn anymore.  Twice over.  _And_ on her teddy bear, Hannigan.  

 

"So you've finally gotten together!  This is so great, I wish we could memorialize the moment.  Why do you have to be invisible, Quinn?  It's so unfair to the gay men who update their scrapbooks incessantly at any minor life moment," Adam says, frowning in Quinn's direction.  

 

"It's not _any_ minor life event, okay?  Stop spreading lies about my scrapbooking," Evan interjects, before he slaps two twenty dollar bills in Adam's hand and shoves him back toward his seat.  "So, you're together now, that's great.  Thanks for losing me forty bucks," he snaps, stabbing at his salad angrily. 

 

"He's happy, girls, really.  He's just upset because he expected you two to break later on," Adam says, smiling widely at Rachel and then over in Quinn's direction.  

 

"So...you're not upset?" Quinn asks quietly, looking back and forth between them.

 

"Upset?  Hell no.  I mean, I am upset about losing forty dollars, yes.  But no, no, not about you two.  Even if we had been in the beginning, we would've had a lot of time to adjust.  You guys have been doing this dance forever.  I was getting a little tired of waiting, actually.  Would you have minded if I locked you in Rachel's closet?" he asks, looking over at Quinn questioningly.  

 

"The argyle might've got to me eventually," Quinn finally says, trying to ignore the lump forming in her throat.

 

Because, this is what her family is now.  These people know everything about her worth knowing, and accept her with arms wide open.  It's amazing, feeling this welcome.  It's worth everything.  This is everything.  

 

//

 

They go to sleep several hours later, this time somewhat clothed and Quinn's invisible clothing placed carefully at the side of the bed.  Quinn's head is resting on Rachel's shoulder and her hand is on Rachel's flat stomach, and she can't stop kissing the the area she can reach without moving herself drastically.  Rachel's hand is running up and down Quinn's back, enjoying the feeling she gets from having Quinn's skin up against hers and how wonderful an afterglow is.  Because it's _wonderful._

 

She whispers into the darkness, like she did in her very first dream the night Quinn went missing.  "I love you."

 

The answer was infinitely better.

 

"I love you, too."

 

//

 

Quinn goes with Rachel to school again the next day, after a small argument about how Rachel's panties from the day before got under her bed that ended with the pair Rachel was currently wearing almost on the floor to join them.  

 

It's strange and amazing, having Quinn with her, _truly_ with her.  She doesn't even know how it's happened, except that it has, and Quinn says she loves her and it's like Barbra Streisand has descended from her home to sing to her, because it's amazing.  It's amazing when Rachel goes to the bathroom in the middle of Spanish and she comes back with a flushed face and her shirt halfway tucked into her skirt.  It's amazing when Santana walks up to her and asks if she knows the combination to her locker because _things_ keep disappearing from it and into her home ec oven, _things_ Rachel doesn't even want to know about judging from the look on Santana's face.  It's all amazing, from her math teacher's books being arranged across the floor to spell out 'I love you' to Coach Sylvester racing down the hallway after a screaming Jacob Ben Israel with what appears to be pizza sauce rolling down her head and Jacob clutching a camera.

 

It's all amazing until she gets to glee and Brittany is crying again, while Finn's Elmo impression is doing nothing today, and everyone looks worn out and disgusted with life, except for Rachel, who's hand is wrapped in Quinn's and whose disposition is so sunny she could light the entire building if hooked up to the electrical system.  She drops Quinn's hand quickly as the other girl stops and gasps, and moves over to Brittany and grabs her, pulling her into a hug and looking at Santana questioningly.  The girl just shrugs, sighs, and pulls Brittany to her, giving Puck an opening to pull Rachel into a bear hug.  

 

"We're sorry we didn't stop by for dinner.  We just thought...you wanted to be alone," Finn says, and Rachel can do nothing but nod as Mr. Shue walks in and looks at Rachel gingerly.  She speaks up.

 

"Mr. Schuester, I would like to formally apologize for my behavior yesterday, even though I firmly believe Quinn _will_ be here for our competition.  I will be happy to help you with your songmaking decisions," she says, and she feels a small bout of whispers start up around her.  Kurt leans over her shoulder and whispers, "She'll be okay, Rachel."

 

They don't get very far into Mr. Schue's first number, _Let the Sun Shine In,_ even though they got through it only two days ago.  By the time they all leave, everyone's hugged Rachel and several have cried on her, and even Mr. Schue had shed a few tears.  When everyone's gone, she feels Quinn come up behind her and wrap her long arms around Rachel, kissing the back of her neck.

 

"I need to get visible again," Quinn whispers there, and she sounds so upset, like this is something she's thought about and knows needs to happen but she doesn't want to do anyway.  And that's what it is, because, would any of these things have ever happened if Quinn hadn't been this way?  

 

Would she still have Quinn when she could look into Quinn's eyes again?

 

//

 

"I went home yesterday," Quinn whispers in the silence of Rachel's room.  "I sat up in my treehouse for a few hours and watched my dad and sister throw pine cones into piles."

 

Rachel pauses in her math homework, looking up to where she assumes Quinn's head is, judging by the indentation in her pillow.  

 

"Chelsea's home?"

 

Quinn nods, even though Rachel can't see it.  It had been so strange, watching them.  It was obvious they were upset - her dad would grunt in anger every time a pine cone didn't land perfectly in a pile and Chelsea had looked like she was about to burst into tears it any moment.  Her mom had come out a few times and hugged them both, and said a few things, words like 'police' and 'missing' being thrown around.

 

It had been upsetting, to her, watching her family suffer while she was so happy to be with Rachel.

 

But the message hadn't been sealed until she had walked into glee that day, watching her best friends in the entire world crying at the thought of her being missing.  She didn't really want it to end - being invisible was kind of fun, especially when she could kiss Rachel without anyone noticing or put itching powder in Coach's tracksuits and protein shakes.  But she knew it had to, eventually.  She just didn't know how.

 

"Rachel."

 

Rachel looks up from her book again, before she catches onto the tone of Quinn's voice and closes it, crawling up the bed towards Quinn's head.  Quinn happily greets Rachel with a kiss that deepens immediately, Rachel climbing almost on top of Quinn in her exuberance.  

 

 _God, this is amazing,_ is all she can think before she feels a buzzing against her hip and a song blaring out from between them.  Rachel pulls out her cell phone from some inner pocket of her skirt that Quinn didn't know existed and glares at it and then blushes at the song lyrics that have now taken on a new meaning for her.

 

"It's that stupid number again," Rachel mutters, rolling off Quinn with a groan.

 

"Just answer it so they'll stop calling," Quinn whispers, and Rachel nods a few times before she flips it open and raises it to her ear.

 

"Hello?" 

 


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _I have had many adventures as an invisible man -_ H.G. Wells

It takes exactly six and a half minutes for Rachel to get Quinn into the car.  The process is exasperated by Quinn's repeated questioning of where they're going, and why Rachel is insisting they go _now,_ and why Rachel looks like she's about to cry, but Rachel just tells her that someone's going to help her.

 

Rachel does, in fact, realize that she sounds like she'd rather drive off a cliff than go get this help, but Quinn was _invisible,_ and she needed to be visible.  Even if it meant that everything they'd just discovered would disappear in the bargain of her appearance, maybe Quinn would be okay.

 

It was maybe stupid, thinking that everything would just end.  It was obvious enough that Quinn cared about her, _a lot,_ and she sure did enjoy saying "I love you."  But there was a part of Rachel that still looked at Quinn and saw the unattainable, something she'd never have completely.  

 

She didn't want to find out if that was true or not.  But she knew - she knew she had to do this, get Quinn to someone who would get her visible, and then maybe they'd be together and Rachel could kiss Quinn and see her smile and see her moan and see what color bra she was wearing underneath her dresses, and maybe Quinn would realize all the reasons she never said anything about her feelings, whatever they were, and they would be over and done.

 

"Rach," Quinn whispers, suddenly calm and unquestioning, and Rachel feels the girl's hand slide over her cheek, wiping away tears that had escaped.  "I love you."

 

Rachel gives a small laugh, and lets Quinn grasp her hand, but she can't help but feel it in her chest, this tightness, this feeling that she was losing Quinn even when she had her in reach, in _hand._

 

"Quinn, don't...freak out, okay?  She thinks she knows what's happened to you, and she wants to help.  And you need to talk to them," Rachel says, pulling into the Fabrays' driveway and looking over at Quinn and grimacing, and she feels the way Quinn's hand tightens around hers.

 

"Rach..."

 

"I love you, Quinn.  And these past few days have meant everything to me, and I wouldn't trade them for anything, not even an EGOT, okay?  But they're you're family, and they miss you, and I...know that things could change, if Chelsea can get you fixed, but please don't forget, okay?  I love you," Rachel whispers, and she can feel the way Quinn's fingers thread through hers right before a loud knocking sounds against her window.

 

She rolls it down to find herself face-to-face with a grinning Chelsea Allison Fabray.

 

//

 

Quinn can't stand it.  Chelsea is moving around the room, talking rapidly, with Rachel jotting down things on a piece of paper and trailing after her, and her parents are just sitting and staring at the coffee table.  It feels like her brain is being pounded on by monkeys or something, because Rachel's words are ringing through her head.  

 

_I know things could change..._

 

She should've shoved her fist in Chelsea's face for interrupting her explanation, that yes, things will change, because she'll have people look her in the eye when she tells them that she's so gay for Rachel Berry that she sometimes has a spotaneous urge to start singing and has dreams about their future together, being gay and having a cute-as-hell kid.  But Rachel had seemed so resigned to this idea that Quinn somehow wouldn't be the same person if she was visible again, like she wouldn't be as in love with her as she claimed to be.

 

Quinn didn't understand, and apparently, she didn't have time to, because Chelsea was crashing straight into Quinn and apologizing in her rapid-fire cadence that she only used when she was hopped up on coffee.

 

Rachel slowly lowered onto Quinn's other side, watching with apprehension as Chelsea snapped her fingers to gather the other inhabitants of the room's attention.

 

"Okay, so.  Q's invisible," she starts, poking at Quinn's shoulder and smiling a little when she actually hits something.  Quinn notices her mother looks rather like she's going to faint.

 

"I know how this has happened, because it happened to me.  Do you all remember that one time I 'ran away' for like a week?  And then I showed up in my room and you took me out to ice cream and Q here threw up because she ate so much and then ran around afterward?"

 

All the occupants nod, and Rachel just stares at Chelsea with an unhappy expression playing across her face.

 

"Well, it was my blanket."

 

Everyone, including Rachel, stare at Chelsea as she grins maniacally.

 

//

 

"So.  You're saying that _your electric blanket_ and _space particles_ emitted from a _space storm_ are what caused you to _become invisible,_ " Mr. Fabray sums up with a dumbfounded explanation on his face.  Rachel is pretty sure hers mirrors his perfectly. 

 

Chelsea, who is currently sprwaled out on the floor surrounded by diagrams describing her Thesis of Invisibility (they're actually labelled that), frowns and points her marker at her father disapprovingly.

 

"Daddy," she starts, pulling herself up off the floor and sitting next to Rachel.  "This is the truth.  This _happened_ and it is _happening._ "

 

"How am I supposed to know that Quinn didn't just run away?" he asks, sneeringly, but Rachel can see the way his eyes shift from her to the space next to her uneasily, scared and frightened, just a little.  Quinn tenses next to her, and Rachel feels the blonde's hand slide into her own.

 

"Daddy," Quinn starts, her voice hardly more than a whisper.  "I didn't run away.  How would that even explain me being invisible?"

 

Mr. Fabray frowns at his daughter's seemingly disembodied voice, before he leans forward and sets his hands on the coffee table.  Mrs. Fabray sets her hand on his shoulder, and they both look so upset in that moment that Rachel, for a moment, forgets exactly why her mood feels so dark.

 

She's never specifically disliked the Fabrays - she disapproved of their treatment of Quinn when she had been pregnant, sure.  But it wasn't something she didn't _understand,_ and unerring need to be perfect, and sometimes at the expense of others.  Their move had been drastic, and terrible, and nothing Rachel could ever condone or do herself.  But she'd be lying if she said it was not within her comprehension.  

 

Rachel had told them on no uncertain terms that if they hurt Quinn again, they would be deeply sorry.  And they hadn't done a thing since, but it had never quite seemed that Quinn and her parents had a _normal_ relationship.  It wasn't adversarial or contentious, but it wasn't comraderie-filled either.  They seemed disjointed, like a machine that needed oiling: like they were built to work together, but that they just weren't quite full-speed yet.

 

"Then where were you, these past few days?  Why didn't you come to us?  Why were you with Rachel?" Mrs. Fabray asks, smiling tightly at Rachel as if to say 'no offense.'  Rachel took none, but frowned when Quinn pulled her hand out of Rachel's and sighed.  On Rachel's other side, Chelsea set her hand on top of Rachel's in a brief gesture of sympathy.

 

"Because...because, I...we..."

 

Rachel feels the edge come back, that hitch in her breath as she feels Quinn falter next to her, and she's out of her seat before either Chelsea or Quinn can stop her.  

 

"I'm sorry, I have to go."

 

And then she's running out the front door, into the rain that's started falling.

 

//

 

Quinn is the one who finds Rachel rocking back and forth on the sidewalk next to the telephone pole she crashed into.  Chelsea had held off her parents when she had explained that she needed to go after Rachel, and Quinn had ran as fast as possible only to find Rachel had stopped two streets over, right here.

 

"Rachel," she says, dropping down behind the shivering girl and wrapping her arms around her.  "Rachel, I love you."

 

"I don't know how I'm supposed to believe you, Quinn," Rachel whispers, but still leans back into Quinn's embrace.  It's heartbreaking, hearing the girl like this, and _once again_ it kills to know it's Quinn at fault.  "Our entire relationship has been a series of accidents."

 

Quinn frowns into Rachel's shoulder, and Rachel takes the silence as an invitation to continue.

 

"You would've never paid attention to me if it weren't for me being a loser, and you never would've been my friend if you hadn't gotten pregnant, and you never would've...slept with me, I suppose, if you weren't invisible.  I mean, would you have done any of those things, if it weren't for the circumstances?  Or would I still be Rachel Berry, that hot girl who was so low on the totem pole that it was illegal to even think about being with me?  Am I just...convenient?  Will this still be anything tomorrow, when the entire school can see you and your parents will see you?  Will I still be this girl, _your_ girl that you love, or will I be your best friend?  Because I can't do that, Quinn, now that I know I'm not just your best friend."

   
It kills, hearing Rachel doubt herself.  Quinn's known Rachel since kindergarten, and paid a good amount of attention to her since then, and she's never known Rachel Berry to be so insecure as this.  And it's all Quinn, always Quinn, when Rachel's like this.  
 

"Rachel," Quinn whispers, but Rachel just shakes her head back and forth.

 

"Don't lie to me, Quinn.  Just...don't.  I wouldn't lie to you."

 

"I don't know," Quinn murmurs into Rachel's drenched sweater, pulling the smaller girl tighter to her, because she's shaking all over and Quinn just wants Rachel close, closer.

 

"Then go home, Quinn," Rachel whispers, pulling out of Quinn's arms and standing up slowly, walking towards her car.  Quinn jumps up after her and grabs her hand, spinning her back around and kisses her, because she doesn't know what else she can do.

 

"Look, Rach, I don't know what I would've done, but _this_ is not a lie.  I love you, Rachel.  I love you so much, and I have and nothing will change that, not visibility or my parents or _anything._ You have to understand," she whispers, barely pulling back from the shorter girl to speak.  Rachel's forehead thunks against hers painfully, and Quinn watches as Rachel's brown eyes slide shut.

 

"Then prove it," Rachel answers, stepping backwards and away from Quinn, staring at the ground.  "I'll see you tomorrow, Quinn.  I love you."

 

Quinn watches helplessly as Rachel slides into her car and slowly drives away, and she can feel her heart hit the ground right along with the rain and her own tears.

 

//

 

Chelsea is wrapping her up in a towel the minute she gets through the door, wincing as Quinn shivers in her arms.  

 

"Q," she whispers, obviously trying to keep their parents out of the discussion.  "Are you okay?"

 

"I'll let you know," she answers.  "Can we just...do this?" Quinn asks, shedding the blanket and opting for the stairs, pulling Chelsea with her.

 

"Of course," Chelsea says softly behind her, and Quinn's never been more greatful for her sister's ability to sense when Quinn's in a mood and just shut up until Quinn says differently.

 

Quinn slides into her bed, staring down at her invisible form forcing the blankets to change shape, and Chelsea shuts the door quietly, watching Quinn settle down and shake a little.  Quinn feels empty, and it's strange, trying to imagine sleeping without Rachel next to her.  She should be happy - she was going to be visible and she was home and in her own bed and wanted there - but Rachel wasn't here.  And she needed Rachel.  

 

"Okay, so...the blanket's on.  I double-checked the NASA website, there's for sure a solar storm complete with molecule-transforming space particles.  I know invisibility is supposed to be impossible, Q, but this is what worked," Chelsea whispers, pulling over Quinn's desk chair and sitting on it, staring at the wall with a frown on her face.

 

"I can't believe it's really as simple as space particles and a defective electric blanket," Quinn whispers, picking at a loose thread on said blanket, her mind flashing back to she and Rachel under blankets.

 

_Prove it._

 

"If you even call that simple," Chelsea says, smiling a little.  "You would think turning invisible should be something magical, like...waiting for true love's kiss or something like that."

 

Quinn only nods, knowing her sister can't see it.  Chelsea stands up suddenly and pushes her chair back towards Quinn's desk and stops at Quinn's bedside.

 

"I should be able to see you in the morning.  So it wouldn't be stupid to say, 'I'll see you in the morning,'" she says, grabbing at Quinn's hand.  "We missed you, Q.  You kind of freaked us out there," she whispers, looking away for a second.  "But I guess it's good, that you were with Rach.  She's...a good person.  A great person, Q."

 

Quinn looks up at Chelsea, her older sister, and for once in her entire life, it seems like Chelsea's at a loss for words, but Quinn gets it.

 

"Thanks, Chels," she whispers, gripping her sister's hand tightly.  _Thank you so much._

 

"Goodnight, Q," Chelsea says, smiling once more and backing out of the room, flipping out the light and closing the door quietly.

 

Quinn stares at the ceiling until she falls asleep.

 

//

 

Rachel is dreaming again.

 

This time, it's Grand Central Station, and a little girl is bouncing around her feet and squealing happily when a clock chimes in the distance.  Quinn is right next to Rachel, her arm wrapped around Rachel's waist, and her other hand catches the girl's head as she passes right in front of the two women.  The girl squeals a little at being caught, before she turns to Rachel and reaches upward, smiling entreatingly.  

 

Rachel picks her up and the dream changes.

 

It's dark, but the setting doesn't matter, because Quinn kisses her sweetly, before backing away and fading away, whispering, "I love you, Rachel."

 

This time, Rachel doesn't answer with, "Then prove it."  She sits on the ground and feels her tears run down her face, and her voice clenches when she says, "I'll wait for you."

 

 


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _I have had many adventures as an invisible man -_ H.G. Wells

Quinn wakes up slowly the next morning.  

 

Her room isn't especially cold or especially warm.  But she can feel how empty it is, all around her, without Rachel there.

 

She gets up and makes her way to her bathroom, only to catch motion in her mirror as she passes it.  

 

It's _her,_ complete with ragged t-shirt and torn jeans.  One of her hands has a long scratch running down it along her arm, and her knuckles look bruised.  Her hair is an utter mess, although that probably has to do with walking through the pouring rain and then going straight to bed.  Her shirt has a suspicious hole in it, towards the hem, and her face has a bruised gash along her left eyebrow.  

 

Quinn could almost kiss her reflection in joy, but before she has a chance to realize that embarrassing idea, she catches sight of a bruising mark right at the base of her neck, where her collarbone starts.  She stares at it for a few seconds until she realizes what it is.

 

_Rachel._

 

//

 

Chelsea is sitting at the kitchen table with one of her giant sketchbooks, doodling along the edge of a page and staring off into the distance when Quinn comes downstairs.

 

"What's it gonna be?" Quinn asks, moving over to sit next to her sister and looking down at the faint lines running across the page.  Chelsea's eyes move up to meet Quinn's, and she smiles winningly before she pulls out a picture from beneath her page and hands it over to Quinn.

 

It's a photo Quinn's never seen before.  It was of Rachel, her head resting sleepily on Quinn's shoulder, probably backstage at one of the numerous glee competitions she and Rachel have co-captained.  She can hardly breathe, looking at it, and she hands it back to Chelsea quickly.

 

"I guess you didn't notice when I took it?" Chelsea asks, and Quinn shakes her head, staring down at the beginnings of the drawing, her head repeating Rachel's words over and over.  

 

_Then prove it._

 

"Quinn, you know you..." Chelsea starts, looking down at her hand as she draws broad lines.  She pauses in the middle of an oval shape and looks over at Quinn and smiles a little.  "I'm not mom and dad."

 

Quinn freezes, her eyes snapping up to meet Chelsea's matching hazel ones.  Chelsea drops her pencil and turns fully to face Quinn, and pulls her hands out from under the table.  

 

"Please don't think you have to hide who you are from me," Chelsea whispers, shaking her head vehemently, gripping Quinn's hands tighter.  Quinn can only stare at her for a moment, before she drops her head and stares at her knees.

 

"I'm in love with her," she whispers.

 

"Well, yeah, I figured that out," Chelsea says, smiling at Quinn when her head snaps up and she stares at her sister suspiciously.  "What?  I'm not an idiot.  Plus, you have a hickey on your neck.  I'm still not okay with you making out with anyone, but at least you can't get pregnant, right?  Well, again, I guess.  You can't get pregnant again.  So you're a teenage cheerleading MILF lesbian!  I mean, there are less cliche things, for sure."

 

Quinn can only stare at her sister with one eyebrow raised.  

 

"I'm trying to be supportive and all you can do is stare at me like that?  Ugh.  Look, Q, I really don't care that you like girls.  Or, I don't care that you like Rachel.  She's a good girl.  Well, surface-wise, but she did leave a hickey on your neck, so maybe that needs to be further investigated.  But seriously, if you were going to fall in love with a girl, there are way worse people than Rachel Berry.  I know mom and dad have tried to tell us all this stuff about God smiting us dead or something when we get a little too drunk and take a dare to get to second base with some girl from your econ class, or if we get knocked up by our childhood best friend, but neither of us has been smited, right?  And that econ girl thing only happened once.  I was _spectacularly_ drunk.  God loves you and your lesbian self.  Don't let anyone ever let you doubt that, Q."

 

Quinn's eyebrow is still raised when she speaks again.

 

"How much coffee have you had, Chels?" 

 

"Like six cups.  But seriously, Q, I meant all of that.  You're my baby sister, and I love you no matter what, okay?  I mean...I know I wasn't really here last year when you were pregnant and you really needed me, and I'm so sorry about that, and I'm going to keep telling you that forever and ever, but screw anyone who tries to stop me from supporting you about this.  Also, I would like to be your maid of honor in your wedding and I really need to suck up a lot to get to that level."

 

Quinn isn't sure what to say to any of this.  Chelsea's never been nearly as damning as her parents, and it's not unexpected for her to come out and say that she doesn't believe that God would smite anyone for being in love (which was basically what she had tried to say, Quinn was pretty sure).  But it's surprising that Chelsea has picked up on this, that she's saying all this to Quinn, her sister, who was supposed to be the heir apparent to Chelsea's classic American girl model.

 

"She wants me to prove it to her," Quinn finally says, catching onto the last part of Chelsea's statement.  "She wants me to prove that I love her now that I'm...visible."

 

Chelsea nods excitedly, dropping Quinn's hands and flipping the page of her sketchbook to a blank one, grabbing her pencil and writing _Operation Make Rachel Forget Her Fears and Realize Quinn's Undying Devotion_ up at the top.

 

"Where do we start?"

 

//

 

Rachel's day has been horrible leading up to glee.  For one thing, her repeated outdoor excursions in the rain have made her voice a little scratchy, and she takes a vow of silence after second period when her voice grates along the word 'onomatopoeia.'  She's dressed in her normal clothes, again, half-hoping that Quinn will show up and notice and be somehow convinced to make a grand gesture that would prove her love.

 

Except, Quinn doesn't show up all day and Rache's stomach makes a sudden turn towards nauseous when she realizes that maybe something went wrong with _Operation Make Quinn Visible_ and the love of her life has somehow been turned from invisible to vaporized or something equally outlandish.  She throws up after fifth period, when she sees Coach Sylvester upend a terrified freshman's books with no sort of liquid staining her hair and no Jell-o encased stapler at hand.  

 

She knows she had to say what she did to Quinn - it was a legitimate fear, that Quinn would 'tap that' and then turn back to being just friends because she was afraid of what it would mean.  Rachel didn't exactly doubt that Quinn loved her - that was apparent enough in hindsight.  Rachel also didn't doubt that Quinn wanted to be with her, in the public eye, and in any other setting, she would be.  But Quinn had been put through utter hell when she had been pregnant, and while she had weathered through it, Rachel had talked to her enough about that time to know that Quinn would avoid such a scenario taking place at all costs.  

 

And declaring that you were in a relationship with the female star of the school's glee club was probably an open invitation for criticism of the highest order.  Quinn had enough of a hold of the school to ward off attacks on Rachel when they were just friends, but Rachel knew that her control and power would be questioned if it came to be that Rachel and Quinn were actually together.

 

In the end, all her logical thinking lead to one simple thought:  that Rachel could not honestly be without Quinn.  It felt as though her heart was being clenched by a strong fist when she considered what she would do if Quinn didn't at least _try_ to do something.  

 

But Quinn wasn't _there,_ and an overwhelming sense of panic settled over her by seventh period and into glee.  It didn't help that the entire club was descending into madness, with a small fight breaking out between a sophomore boy and Finn over an accidental past tense referencing of Quinn.  Mr. Schue was valiantly trying to break them apart as Puck and Mike and Matt stood with their arms crossed over the fighting pair when Rachel felt a hand slide around her waist.

 

She had been standing by the door debating whether she should go get another teacher to help Mr. Schue and also wondering how on earth she had slipped her inside workout shoes on for what seemed like the millionth time instead of her outside ones (she was not that interested in stopping Finn from beating up the kid, to be honest), but she whipped around when she felt the hand, knowing exactly who it belonged to.  

 

It was Quinn, just as her intuition had told her, but it was _Quinn -_ completely visible and smiling a little down at Rachel, her hand resting lightly on the small of Rachel's back.  She was practically _sparkling._ She wasn't wearing her Cheerios uniform, a difference from her regular routine, and her hair was flowing in soft waves around her face.  She had a bandage over an ugly looking gash over her left eyebrow, and a few more bandages along her jaw over little cuts.  But she was _gorgeous._

 

Rachel crashed into her with no small amount of force, a wail escaping her throat as she clung to Quinn.  Quinn wrapped both arms around Rachel and pulled her as close as possible, and Rachel could hear the taller girl whisper in her hear, "I'm okay, it's okay, it's okay," trying to shush her, but Rachel could barely handle it.  She felt the entire room behind her quiet at her sob, before she felt someone crash into her side with decided force, and she barely had to look to tell it was Santana, especially when she heard the choked, "Where have you _been,_ Preggo?"

 

Before long, the entire club was gathered around Quinn, who's grip around Rachel had only grown tighter as more and more people pressed in.  There seemed to be a lot of crying, but all Rachel could hear was Quinn whispering in her ear, over and over, "I love you, it's okay," as she cried into the blonde's shoulder.  Mr. Schue finally called over the din, telling everybody to back off and sit down so Quinn could actually get in the room and talk.  Rachel attempted to let go of Quinn (very, very reluctantly), but Quinn held fast, maneuvering them into the room and allowing Rachel to settle her head back against Quinn's collarbone and breathe her in.

 

It was ridiculous.  Only a few hours ago Rachel had been perfectly willing to make Quinn fight for her, but something about seeing her was intoxicating.  It was one thing, to be in love and kiss and make love to an invisible girl - it was sort of an intangible tangibility.  But it was a complete other to have Quinn in her arms and be able to see the way Quinn's chest moved up and down as she breathed, or the way she smiled a little when Puck called her baby momma.

 

"Uh, hey, guys," Quinn says, her voice strong but wavering as the entire group calmed down to a low decibel.  Rachel smiled a little into the sweater Quinn was wearing as she heard the way Quinn's voice reverberated.

 

"Um, I just got back from the police station, so my brain's a little fried," she starts, but Mercedes interrupts.

 

"Yeah, but where were you?" she asks, and Rachel can hear Quinn's breath catch a little when she hears the choked sound of her friend's voice.  

 

"Well, I...it's complicated, I guess," she finally says, her voice dropping to a quieter tone.  The entire club starts to speak at the same time, asking a myriad of questions, and Quinn takes the opportunity to drop her head down to whisper into Rachel's ear.  "Are you okay?"

 

Rachel just burrows a little closer, and feels Quinn's arms tighten in accordance.

 

"Look, guys, I was...I was safe, okay?  I wasn't kidnapped or anything.  I crashed my car and that's why I look like I've gotten into a knife fight, but I'm really happy to be back home and be with my family and you guys again.  I missed you, and it seems like you've missed me a lot," Quinn says, and Rachel can just _hear_ the smile in her voice.

 

"So, where's our setlist?"

 

//

 

"Um, Rach?" Quinn asks, stopping Rachel in her path out the door.  Most of the club has drained out, with promises to take Quinn out over the weekend, after several songs started and not finished because of someone breaking out of step and glomping onto her.

 

So many people being interested in her was nice and everything, but Quinn could barely take her eyes off Rachel.  The way Rachel had held onto her had given Quinn a safe feeling, but the minute the girl had separated from her, Quinn couldn't seem to catch on to anything else.  

 

But she had a plan, and she was going to set that plan into motion.  

 

Rachel turned around slowly, not walking forward to meet Quinn, her eyes darting around the room.  It was easy enough for Quinn to tell that Rachel was conflicted - there was no mistaking Rachel's closeness to her earlier, but now that she had regained some measure of control, Quinn could tell she was trying to retain her staunch stance on their relationship from the day before.

 

Quinn decided to step forward anyway and reach for Rachel, smiling when Rachel gives in and pulls herself into Quinn's waiting embrace.  

 

"I want you to come to dinner with me," Quinn whispers into Rachel's hair, rubbing her hand up and down the smaller girl's back.  "With my parents and Chelsea.  I'm going to tell them."

 

Quinn feels Rachel freeze in her arms, and then slowly pull back, looking up at Quinn curiously, but with awe spreading through her eyes.   She was absolutely adorable and gorgeous and Quinn was struck with the familiar urge to kiss her, except this time, she could.  And so she does, pecking Rachel lightly on the lips and smiling when Rachel gives a little smile.

 

"I love you," she whispers, and Rachel smiles even wider.

 

"I love you, too."

 

//

 

"Mom, dad.  I need to tell you something," Rachel hears Quinn say next to her, feeling Quinn's hand in hers under the table squeeze tighter.  On Rachel's other side, Chelsea gives a nervous look over to her parents, before she sits back and crosses her arms, frowning down at her plate.  The minute she had entered the house, she had been accosted by the older girl, and had been give a stern warning about 'messing with my baby sister' and had also been issued a threat that she would be shot if she hurt Quinn.  It had been assuring, seeing Chelsea's reaction to she and Quinn's relationship, even though she had no doubt the threat had been real.

 

Dinner had been going rather well, with the Fabrays in an amiable mood and smiling a lot at Quinn and subsequently Rachel.  It was obvious to Rachel that they were happy with Quinn's actual appearance, but she was sure that Quinn's announcement would wipe the smiles off their faces.

 

"Go ahead, Quinn," Mrs. Fabray says, watching her daughter curiously as Rachel feels Quinn sit up straighter and breathe deeply.

 

"Rachel and I...are together.  Um.  Romantically.  And I know it's not something you approve of, and I understand if you would like me to leave the house until you...something.  I don't know.  But you should know, you deserve to know."

 

There's silence for a good thirty seconds until Chelsea leans forward suddenly, pulling all eyes to her for disturbing the tension.  She frowns and looks over at her father, who's face is almost white.  

 

"Quinn," he starts, responding to Chelsea's silent prompt.  "Quinn, I think...well.  I'm not sure what to think."

 

"Daddy, Quinn's happy with Rachel.  And, did you know Leviticus also said no haircuts?  Just so you know," Chelsea says rapidly, leaning closer to her father and eyeing him, as if her influence will keep him from throwing Rachel and Quinn out onto the street and disowning Quinn.

 

"Chelsea...I'm not looking for your input here.  Quinn, I...don't quite understand..."

 

"What's not to understand?  I mean, they love each other.  How is that hard to understand?" Chelsea interrupts, pointing haphazardly at Rachel and Quinn and narrowly missing smacking Rachel in the face.  Rachel feels Quinn's hand grip hers as tightly as possible.

 

"Chelsea!  Just...stop.  What I mean to say is...I don't quite understand this...relationship.  At all, I should say.  But...we've had time to adjust to it.  I don't think I'm quite ready to get a bumper sticker declaring that I love my gay child, but...I want to support you in all your decisions, Quinn.  We've made horrible mistakes in both you and Chelsea's parenting.  We threw you out on the street, and...I realize that some part of our relationship will never recover from that, but you have to understand that we recognize that it was a mistake.  We've tried very hard to make you understand that we're different, or that we're trying to be.  And we will continue to try.  To be honest, it's been rather obvious for a while that you and Rachel's relationship ran deeper than friendship, so we...knew that this would come up eventually," Mr. Fabray says, and Rachel can't even believe that she's awake right now, because he just said all of that.

 

Chelsea is wide-eyed next to her, her mouth hanging open, one hand wrapped around her armrest and leaning towards her father.  Rachel feels her own mouth hanging open but can't bring herself to close it, and Quinn's hand around hers as loosened considerably.  

 

"What your father is trying to say, Quinn, is that we support you," Mrs. Fabray says.  

 

Rachel literally could be dying right now, and has an extreme urge to pinch herself.  Chelsea leans forward and slaps her hands on the table, dragging everyone's eyes back to her.

 

"Okay.  So, my parents are suddenly all for the gays?  Am I understanding this?  Am I hallucinating?  I'm hallucinating, right?  This can't actually be happening.  Can it?"

 

"I don't understand either, daddy.  I mean...I...how did this happen?  Why would you...feel this way?" Quinn whispers, leaning forward and mimicking Chelsea's position.  Rachel is content not to question this godsend and merely looks at the Fabray parents questioningly.

 

"It's really Rachel's dads' fault.  They sent us a lot of pamphlets, and they...well, Rachel's a good kid, and to be honest, better than most children in this town, and they raised her just as well as any...other couple.  _They're_ good people.  Plus, there was that one PowerPoint Rachel had shown us about accepting your children.  But, Quinn, I think you might want to hold off on telling your grandparents.  That might not end as well," Mrs. Fabray says, and Quinn nods a few times, looking over at Rachel and then at her sister, smiling wide.  

 

"I can't believe this.  I had battle plans!  I had contingency plans, I had a getaway car prepared and a secondary safe house and you're telling me that you already _knew?_ Does _everyone_ already know?  Oh my God, you guys, have you even been schooled in the art of subtlety?  Because if _our_ parents already knew, then you are doing it _wrong,_ " Chelsea exclaims, standing up and staring down at Rachel and Quinn accusingly.  "I didn't even get to use a code word!"

 

"You had code words?" Rachel asks curiously, because she _is_ the sort of person who believes in the thoroughness of a plan, and Chelsea is certainly displaying said thoroughness.

 

"Of course I did.  I've been setting up operations like this since I was five.  I _know_ how to plan, damn it!"  

 

"Chelsea, we may be okay with the gays, as you put it, but we aren't about to let you start cursing like a heathen."

 

"Right, sorry."

 

//

 

"Well, duh, of course they already knew.  I mean... _duh,_ " Evan says from the kitchen, prompting his husband to laugh.  They're currently at Rachel's house, explaining to Rachel's fathers what had happened.

 

Quinn really just wanted to get upstairs so she could make out with Rachel, but she was rather amused with Rachel's increasing enthusiasm getting reflected by her fathers.

 

"Yeah, you guys practically mount each other when you see each other," Adam says, walking into the room and laughing at the expression on Rachel's face.  It looks rather disgusted and maybe a little bit guilty.  "And Quinn, I'm liking the scratch!  Pretty badass, if I may say so myself.  I mean, _I'm_ pretty badass, so I would know."

 

"Honey, you fainted like, days ago.  And please do not ever say anything like the mounting thing again.  I realize that I have declared my support of Quinn and Rachel's relationship, but she's still my baby girl and that image is just _traumatizing,_ " Evan says, walking in after his husband and sitting on the couch.

 

"Badass people faint all the time, I don't know what you're talking about.  So, girls.  How are we celebrating Quinn's reappearance and our victory over deep-seated prejudice tomorrow?" 

 

"Um, actually, I needed to talk to you about that, Mr. Berry.  I was wondering if we could invite a bunch of the glee kids over here?  I mean, you're welcome to the party, too.  And Chelsea, because she said she wanted to gatecrash.  I think we're going to tell them about our relationship," Quinn says, stepping forward and leaving her hand extended back, her fingers laced with Rachel's.

 

Evan and Adam look at each other and laugh.

 

"Look, Quinn.  If your _parents_ already knew, what do you think the chance of your _very close_ friends not knowing is?" Evan asks pragmatically, and Adam nods enthusiastically in agreement.

 

Rachel stomps her foot dramatically.  Quinn finds it adorable and has another urge to kiss Rachel.  She decides to save it until later so Evan doesn't get any further traumatized.

 

" _Daddy,_ declarations are important!"  

 

"Fine!  Fine.  But don't be surprised if no one cares.  You really do...um, hang onto each other a lot?" Adam says, changing his obvious word choice at his husband's glare.

 

Rachel jumps up and down, and this time, Quinn can't stop herself.

 

//

 

"Did you _really_ just turn off _my_ song _just_ so you could tell us what we've known for like, ever?" Santana asks loudly, glaring at Quinn.  Rachel makes an indignant noise.

 

//

 

"Do you miss it?" Rachel asks, tracing over Quinn's abs and marveling at how she can finally act out her (obscene) dreams featuring them.  Quinn blinks a little, having been half asleep and enjoying Rachel's touch.  The glee club left hours ago, and Rachel's dads had gone up to bed pretty quickly, leaving the two girls to their own devices.

 

It had been amazing, watching Quinn as she moaned and gasped and trembled, seeing everything for the first time.  It _felt_ like a second first time, and Rachel was pretty sure the image of Quinn under her, mouth open and gasping, eyes clenched shut while she whispered Rachel's name over and over would be burned into her mind for the rest of her life.  She was kind of okay with that, actually.

 

"Do I miss what?" Quinn asks, rolling over to face Rachel and smiling at Rachel's disheveled appearance.  Rachel can't help but think that _this_ Quinn, this Quinn that is all hers, her hair wild and her eyes soft, dressed in nothing but her panties and a t-shirt, would forever be the most beautiful thing Rachel had ever seen.

 

"Being invisible.  Do you miss it?" Rachel asks, sliding her hand onto Quinn's hip, where a sliver of skin has appeared between the shirt and her panties and shifting closer to the blonde.

 

"Well, it was fun.  I got to do all sorts of things that I've always wanted to do.  I stole Santana's...uh.  Things.  And hid them places, and I got to ruin Coach's days like she used to ruin mine.  I didn't have to pay for your daily cookie.  But I...missed things, too.  I missed you, looking at me like you do.  I missed my friends and I missed my family.  I don't miss being invisible, no.  Not nearly as much as I missed being like this, here," Quinn whispers, blinking sleepily before she pulls Rachel even closer and sets her head onto Rachel's shoulder.

 

"I love you," Rachel whispers down to the girl, _her_ girl, sliding an arm around her and pulling the blankets up around their shoulders. 

 

"I love you too.  And...I forgot to ask.  I proved it, right?" Quinn whispers, sliding her head into place in the space between Rachel's neck and collarbone.

 

Rachel smiles into the darkness, dropping a kiss onto the crown of Quinn's head.

 

"Yeah," she whispers.  "You proved it."

 

//

 

Quinn's dream has stayed the same for years now.  Be with Rachel, forever.  

 

It's central park, and Quinn is watching her daughter run ahead of her to the middle of the meadow, prancing around on the top of the hill, butchering the lyrics to _The Sound of Music._ Rachel laughs behind her, her grasp on Quinn's hand loose but strong, and she rushes up ahead of her wife to join their daughter in her dancing.  Quinn stops a few feet away, watching the way Rachel twirls the girl around and smiles down at her.  

 

The little girl notices her mother standing too far away from her and reaches toward Quinn entreatingly, and Rachel smiles wider when Quinn comes closer and kneels down to the girl, kissing her on the forehead and gesturing for both she and Rachel to sit down with her.  

 

Rachel settles down across from her, and the girl sits down in Quinn's lap, leaning backwards and thumping her head softly against Quinn's collarbone, stretching out and barely touching her feet to Rachel's crossed legs.  

 

Rachel looks up from the girl with a huge smile, meeting Quinn's eyes.  Her smile changes almost imperceptibly, but Quinn catches the change and smiles back, knowing that Rachel is looking at her the way she only looks at Quinn.

 

The girl giggles when Rachel moves forward suddenly, whispering into her ear.  It's just beyond Quinn's hearing, but when Rachel sits back and looks around with a smug smile on her face, she knows what's coming.

 

Her daughter sits up a little further, her small hand grabbing at Quinn's neck and pulling her down so the girl can whisper in her ear.  

 

"Momma says she loves you," the girl whispers, like it's a big secret.  Quinn smiles, pressing a kiss to the girl's forehead and she just feels _happy,_ because this is her dream, this life.

 

And it's no longer just a dream.  

 

 

_the end._

 


End file.
